• Ocean Warming and Thawing Permafrost Reduce the Arctic Ocean's Biological Carbon Storage and CO2 Uptake

    The Arctic experiences some of the most rapid climate changes on the planet, resulting in significant sea-ice melt. This transformation exposed the Arctic Ocean to increasing sunlight, driving a 56% rise [...] nutrients and carbon into the Arctic Ocean, delivered from rivers and coastal erosion. While it might seem logical that these additional nutrients would enhance the ocean’s biological carbon pump, - boosting [...] ecosystem impoverishment are undermining the pump’s efficiency, challenging assumptions about the Arctic’s ability to store carbon in a warming world.

  • More and stronger marine heatwaves in the Arctic – with severe consequences

    becoming more frequent and intense. The Arctic Ocean also suffers from this development: The absence of sea ice will lead to more extreme fluctuations in ocean temperatures, with abrupt temperature changes [...] Wegener Institute shows how marine heatwaves will also become much more intense and frequent in the Arctic in the 21st century. With drastic consequences for the ecosystem. The researchers published their

  • UDASH

    Since the early 20th century hydrographic measurements have been carried out in the Arctic Ocean. Although today the Arctic is a hotspot of climate change, data sampling is still sparse due to the large sea [...] climate studies in the Arctic Ocean. Many of the collected data are publicly available, but scattered across different electronic archives. Consequently, scientists working on Arctic climate change have to [...] awi.de The „Unified Database for Arctic and Subarctic Hydrography“ (UDASH) is an attempt to gather all publicly available temperature and salinity data for the Arctic Ocean and to provide them on a high quality

  • Long-term Observations

    Long-term observations in the Arctic and Southern Ocean Arctic Ocean The Arctic is an environment where global climate change is strongly manifested. The Arctic Amplification, represented by the atmospheric [...] atmospheric warming trend in the Arctic being about three times that of the global average, is also manifested in sea-ice and… Find out more Southern Ocean The oceans are key elements of the global climate [...] system, not at last due to their ability to extract and store heat and CO2 from the atmosphere. Polar oceans are of particular Find out more

  • Circulation in the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas

    the Arctic Mediterranean. The Arctic Ocean freshwater budget The Arctic Ocean freshwater budget A particular feature of the Arctic Ocean is the enormous freshwater surplus. The upper Arctic Ocean receives [...] cover makes the Arctic Ocean distinct from subarctic oceans – the presence of ice, as well as ice formation and melt significantly shape the circulation and water masses of both the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic [...] Circulation in the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas The Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas are integral parts of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, and hence key regions for the global climate

  • Projects

    ARCGATE The Arctic boundary has been observed over many years to better understand and monitor the exchanges between the Arctic Ocean and its neighboring oceans. The unique geometry of the Arctic—surrounded [...] Polarstern set sail from Tromsø to drift in the Arctic Ocean for a year—trapped in the ice. The goal of the MOSAiC expedition was to study the Arctic, the epicenter of global warming, more closely than… [...] Since the early 20th century hydrographic measurements have been carried out in the Arctic Ocean. Although today the Arctic is a hotspot of climate change, data sampling is still sparse due to the large sea

  • Main Research Topics

    Observations in the Arctic Ocean The Arctic is an environment where global climate change is strongly manifested. The Arctic Amplification, represented by the atmospheric warming trend in the Arctic being about [...] Main Research Topics Physical Oceanography of the Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas are integral parts of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, and hence key regions for the [...] the global climate. The perennial sea ice cover makes the Arctic Ocean distinct from subarctic oceans – the presence of… Find out more PhytoOptics Analytical bio-optical techniques are applied to extract

  • Ultraslow spreading mid-ocean ridges

    category of mid-ocean ridges, accounting for about 15% of the total length of mid-ocean ridges worldwide. Since ultraslow ridges are located in the Arctic Ocean and the stormy Southwest Indian Ocean and are therefore [...] Ultraslow spreading mid-ocean ridges At mid-ocean ridges, the lithospheric plates move apart at rates of about 5-150 mm/year and new oceanic lithosphere is continuously formed. At low spreading rates of [...] making its way to the ocean floor through a cold, thick lithosphere. Therefore, the formation process of new ocean lithosphere differs at ultraslow spreading ridges from all other ocean basins. Ultraslow ridges

  • Long-term observations in the Arctic Ocean

    Long-term observations in the Arctic Ocean Schematic of ocean circulation between the Arctic and neighbouring oceans: warm water paths (red), cold/fresh polar water paths (blue), regions of AWI focus in [...] circulation in the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean from the 1990s to the late 2000s ,OS Special Issue: Ice-Atmosphere-Ocean interactions in the Arctic Ocean during IPY: the Damocles project, 9 (1), [...] Fram Strait / West Spitsbergen Atlantic Water is the main oceanic source of heat, salt, and nutrients of the Arctic Ocean. It enters the Arctic Ocean through the Barents Sea or Fram Strait. In the eastern

  • ArcSolution

    more dynamic Arctic sea ice and larger open ocean areas increase the complexity of accurately predicting the transport pathways and impacts of various pollutants in the Arctic environment. These pollutants [...] project we will simulate the oceanic advection of pollutants from their sources with a global version of the sea-ice-ocean model FESOM2 with about 7 km spatial resolution in the Arctic and Nordic Seas. Atmospheric [...] relevant to Arctic ecosystems. . The sea ice-ocean model FESOM2 will be coupled with the atmospheric chemistry transport model DEHM (Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model), thus connecting the ocean and atmospheric