Sea ice

Great minds don't always think alike...

For Monica Ionita and Frank Kauker, it all comes down to September – when they’ll finally find out which of their forecasts for the summertime sea-ice extent for September was more accurate: a battle of methods that spurs on research!
In action on an ice flow

AWI sea ice physicists observe and investigate the sea ice cover in both hemisphere thoroughly. Which techniques and methods they are using in shown in this graph.
Life is thriving beneath the floes

The “underside” of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic is a unique habitat. AWI biologists investigate, how algae and animals manage to survive in the icy, dim world.
The mystery of the ice underneath the Antarctic sea ice

In some regions of the Antarctic, a several metre thick layer of platelet ice is forming unterneath the sea ice. AWI researchers have developed a new method to measure this ice across a large area.

Remote Sensing

A direct connection to the ice

Thanks to cutting-edge techniques, researchers can more accurately gauge the thickness of sea ice

Snow drift form around Polar 5 while equipment is loaded into the airplane. This photo was taken during the NETCARE campaign in spring 2015.

Photo gallery

Our best photos from the field

Sea ice, the ocean and lots of hard working scientists: Our best images of the AWI sea ice research

Laptev Sea

The Birthplace of Arctic Sea Ice

Will the Arctic sea ice continue to shrink? AWI researchers explore the "ice machine of the Arctic"

Polar patterns - The Polar Seas from a Bird's Perspective

Ever-changing and ever new: In the Arctic and Antarctica, frost and the sun, waves, water and the wind create perpetually changing tints and shades, shapes and patterns. In order to capture the beauty of this interplay, one must take-off and take a bird’s eye view on the polar landscapes. A perspective that only polar researchers like AWI sea ice physicists on their routine survey flights above the ice are lucky enough to slip into. On each of those flights, one or two photographic cameras keep record of the landscape at the scientists’ feet. Pointing vertically downwards, the camera is mounted in the hull of the research aircraft or installed in the torpedo shaped body of the EM-bird – a sea ice thickness measurement device that can be dragged by the research aircraft or a helicopter. The past years of research did hence not only result in new scientific knowledge about sea ice, but also in truly fascinating images, picked by AWI sea ice physicist Stefan Hendricks.

News

New study

Climate refugee Cod

The latest research conducted by AWI experts that the chances of survival for the offspring of important fish species will dramatically worsen, if the 1.5 ° C target of the Paris Climate Agreement is not achieved. Under conditions of further warming and acidification of the ocean, Atlantic cod and its arctic relative polar cod would be forced to look for new habitats in the far north. Their populations could dwindle. If so, this could be disastrous, as the polar cod is the most important food source for Arctic seals and seabirds. In addition, fishers could lose the world’s most productive area for catching Atlantic cod,

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.