Archive of News and Press Releases
An entire year trapped in the Arctic ice
It could be the largest-scale Arctic research expedition of all time: in September 2019 the German research icebreaker Polarstern will depart from Tromsø, Norway and, once it has reached its destination, will spend the next year drifting through the Arctic Ocean, trapped in the ice. A total of 600 people from 17 countries, who will be supplied by other icebreakers and aircraft, will participate in the expedition – and several times that number of researchers will subsequently use the data gathered to take climate and ecosystem research to the next level.…
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Why the tongue of the Pine Island Glacier suddenly shrank
The Pine Island Glacier in Western Antarctica is not only one of the fastest-flowing ice streams in the Southern Hemisphere; over the past eleven years, four major icebergs have calved from its floating tongue. In February 2017, researchers on board the German research icebreaker Polarstern successfully mapped an area of seafloor previously covered by shelf ice. A comparison of these new maps with satellite images of the ice stream reveals why the glacier suddenly retreated toward the coast: at important points, it had lost contact with the ground, as…
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Antarctica ramps up sea level rise
The findings are from a major climate assessment known as the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE), and are published today in Nature. It is the most complete picture of Antarctic ice sheet change to date - 84 scientists from 44 international organisations combined 24 satellite surveys to produce the assessment.
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The Final Strai(gh)t
On 5th June after leaving Las Palmas on Gran Canaria we again reduced our speed for 5 hours so that we could tow the Triaxus/topAWI for one final test. Thereupon followed a final comparison station with CTD and the optical measurements package. Thereafter, we were supposed to head to Bremerhaven with all haste and without further ado.
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![[Translate to English:] Eine neue Initiative der Vereinten Nationen will für einen besseren Schutz der Meere und Ozeane sorgen.](/fileadmin/_processed_/8/b/csm_20101201_ANTXXVII2_010_FRoedel_0093cec892.jpg "Action Platform for Sustainable Ocean Business")
AWI Director Antje Boetius advises United Nations initiative
The seas and oceans are climate machines, living and economic areas at the same time. They supply raw materials and food, serve as transport routes and recreational areas. But this space is also under threat: from littering and overfishing to global warming. To protect the oceans, the United Nations (UN) celebrates World Oceans Day on 8 June each year.
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How is the ecosystem around the Antarctic Peninsula changing?
In the autumn, the waters surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula were still home to large quantities of krill and salps, ready to spawn. Thanks to warmer water temperatures, the ice formation began later in the year, as a result of which single-celled algae, the chief food source for these organisms, were available in higher concentrations. How life in the Southern Ocean will adapt to such changes was a central topic during this year’s Antarctic season on board the research vessel Polarstern, which will end when, on Monday 11 June 2018, the ship returns to…
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The Tropical North Atlantic: Cold in the Water, Dust in the Sky
The whole week long we sailed in the North-east Trade Wind zone under skies with only a few clouds, but with strong head-winds for Polarstern. By crossing the northern tropic, the Tropic of Cancer, at 23° 26’ 05” North during the night of 31st May to 1st June we have left the Tropics and are again in the Subtropics. Although we have been moving through the Tropics and Subtropics, the water and air surrounding us with temperatures of around 20°C have been relatively cool, 10° colder than the daytime temperatures in much of Germany. That sounds like a…
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Cruising through the Blue
After entering the Tropics in the Southeast Trade Wind region and sailing under cloudless skies, the second half of the week was largely cloudy with frequent rainfall. We had arrived in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, in which the air masses transported by the Southeast Trade Winds and their northern hemispheric counterpart, the Northeast Trade Winds, rise up and produce thick clouds reaching high into the atmosphere.
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European Parliamentarian visiting AWI Helgoland
On May 25, the European Parliamentarian Regine Meißner (3rd from the left) visited Helgoland. In the lobster hall of the Biological Institute, Maarten Boersma reports on current projects. AWI Director Antje Boetius (r.) discussed with Meißner about EU research policy.
The German National Committee for Polar Research meets at GEOMAR
Anyone concerned with the development of the global climate, rising sea levels or changes in marine ecosystems must always keep the polar regions in mind. The Arctic and Antarctic, for example, play a central role in the system of global ocean currents, and the large but shrinking ice sheets are important factors in the Earth's radiation balance.
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