• The new Polarstern: Contract for new German research icebreaker awarded

      the German research fleet, German shipbuilding, and international polar research alike: the new Polarstern will be constructed in Wismar by thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. company received the official contract

    • Polarstern back in home port

      Polarstern returned to her home port of Bremerhaven at high tide this morning. After a good 20 weeks in the Antarctic season, the research vessel moored at the pier in the overseas harbour at 5:00 am.

    • The new Polarstern features a high-tech heart

      The centrepiece of the new construction project for the Polarstern's successor is now taking shape: by the end of August, TKMS, Wärtsilä, Steerprop and Aker Arctic had inked the contracts for the entire

    • International training on board Polarstern completed

      international group of young marine scientists is arriving in Walvis Bai in Namibia on board the Polarstern. They have been taking part in a specialised training voyage aboard the German research icebreaker

    • Research icebreaker Polarstern sets sail for the Antarctic Weddell Sea

      An international research team led by the University of Rostock is investigating the impact of climate change on biodiversity in Antarctica.

    • Landmark in Antarctica named after AWI researcher

      During the last Antarctic season, British Polarstern expedition members Dr. Robert D. Larter and Dr. Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) discovered a new landmark in the Southern [...] Southern Ocean with one of the Polarstern helicopters. This cape is named in honour of the late AWI geologist Christian Hass.

    • Oasis of life in the ice-covered central Arctic

      Polarstern Expedition
      Under the ice of the Arctic, unknown habitats conceal an unexpected variety of living beings. On October 23rd, 46 scientists are expected to return to the home port in Bremerhaven [...] Bremerhaven from an Arctic expedition with the research vessel Polarstern. Over the past six weeks, they had explored life in ice, ocean and seabed with new robots and camera systems.

    • Climate Research in the Southern Ocean

      Polarstern Expedition
      The Alfred Wegener Institute has risen to the challenge of undertaking an expedition to the Weddell Sea in the Antarctic under pandemic conditions. Consequently, the participants [...] participants in this year’s first Polarstern expedition will be able to resume their long-term measurements in the Southern Ocean, gathering data that forms the basis for our understanding of polar processes and

    • Return from East Antarctica

      After more than six months, the research icebreaker Polarstern is returning to its home port of Bremerhaven after a successful Antarctic season. The expeditions to the southern hemisphere and the transit [...] geology of East Antarctica as well as student training. Because of this special study area for the Polarstern, there was a change of personnel in Hobart, which was the first port call in Australia in her more

    • Hausgarten Expedition ends

      Arctic
      On Sunday afternoon, the research icebreaker Polarstern returned from its roughly one month-long Arctic expedition to the Fram Strait between Greenland and Spitsbergen. In the so-called Hausgarten [...] 20 years of long-term research on the effects of global climate change on the Arctic ecosystem. Polarstern will spend the coming months in the shipyard for extensive maintenance work.