Arctic Ocean

The Pulse of Heat in the North Atlantic

The future of the Arctic Ocean will be decided in part in the Fram Strait, a region between Greenland and Svalbard in which warm water flows northward from the Atlantic. The AWI is investigating just how much of that water actually reaches the Arctic
Tiny algae, hugely resilient

Microalgae are microscopically small, single-celled algae species and an important source of food in the oceans. AWI researchers examines how changed living conditions as a result of climate change affect Arctic microalgae
Uncharted territory!

The ice shield of Greenland is shrinking – at an ever faster rate. To understand why AWI researchers had to take the Polarstern where no other research vessel had ever been – directly to the glacier front. An expedition report

News

Arctic Expedition

Polarstern returns from geo-expedition in the Arctic

This morning, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) research icebreaker Polarstern returned to her homeport in Bremerhaven. Over the previous six weeks, nearly 100 contributing researchers and crewmembers had engaged in geoscientific fieldwork, sea-ice experiments and meteorological research in the Central Arctic. In addition, students from the German-Canadian graduate training programme ArcTrain were on board.

Arctic

Arctic sea ice continues to track far below average

When the summer melting of the Arctic sea ice ends in the middle of September, the minimum ice extent is likely to have decreased to an area of 4.4 (+/- 0.1) million square kilometres.

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 will participate in the expedition.

Arctic Ocean

The Pulse of Heat in the North Atlantic

Tiny algae, hugely resilient

Uncharted territory!