• 30 years of AWI airborne survey in the Arctic

    the Alfred Wegener Institute have been surveying the ice-covered Arctic Ocean for 30 years. The immense effort of the past 52 expeditions has paid off: 40,000 km of measurement data document the significant [...] measurement series in the world that has been carried out in the Arctic over such a long period. Currently, two Basler BT-67 aircraft are in operation: the Polar 5 and Polar 6.

  • Polarstern Departs on Arctic Expedition

    catching the afternoon high tide at ca 3:00 pm and bound for the Arctic Ocean. The four-week expedition, slated to end on 19 July in Tromsø, Norway, will focus on extended ecological fieldwork at the AWI’s deep-sea observatory Hausgarten and at the FRAM Ocean Observing System between Greenland and Svalbard. 50 researchers and a ship’s crew of 24 will be on board.

  • Microplastics

    floating microplastic particles leading to an export to the deeper ocean and sediments. Meanwhile, scientists and authorities worldwide have recognized the massive accumulation of MP in the aquatic [...] Gunnar Gerdts) Fram Pollution Observatory / Microplastics in the Arctic (in-house project; PIs: Melanie Bergmann, Ilka Peeken and Gunnar Gerdts) “Microplastics Reactor” and “Sediment Separator” (in-house [...] for microplastics analyses in European waters); www.jpi-oceans.eu/ecological-aspects-microplastics (PIs: Sebastian Primpke and Gunnar Gerdts) WT.SH project “Size is important” (PIs: Michaela

  • Eyewitnesses to Arctic Change

    good fifty scientific expedition participants will explore the Arctic in transition as sea ice extent reaches its annual minimum in September. They will explore the biology, chemistry and physics of sea ice as well as the effects of sea ice retreat on the entire ocean system from the surface to the deep sea. Eleven years ago, Antje Boetius was part of the largest ever sea ice minumum in the Arctic [...] Now she is returning with her team to compare the state of the Arctic today - also with the data from the MOSAiC expedition 2019/20.

  • Submarine Permafrost

    Institut) What is submarine permafrost? Subsea permafrost in the Arctic is generally relict terrestrial permafrost, inundated after the last glaciation and now degrading under the overlying shelf sea. [...] the distribution of submarine permafrost for most of the shallow Arctic Shelf, over 80% of which lies offshore of Eastern Siberia. Degradation rates of the ice-bearing permafrost following inundation have [...] Projects EU Nunataryuk BMBF MOSES BMBF / NERC CACOON FLO CHAR Arctic Coastal Dynamics (ACD)

  • Climate change threatens Arctic polar cod stocks

    Arctic cod is the most abundant fish in the Arctic Ocean. It is an important food source for Arctic marine mammals and plays an important [...] Institute, has now evaluated the most important scientific work on Arctic cod of the past decades. The conclusion: Above all, the already advanced decline in arctic sea ice cover as a result of man-made

  • Due to sea-ice retreat, zooplankton could remain in the deep longer

    Due to intensifying sea-ice melting in the Arctic, sunlight is now penetrating deeper and deeper into the ocean. Since marine zooplankton respond to the available light, this is also

  • The changing Arctic Ocean

    After eventful and busy months, the Arctic season ends this weekend with the Polarstern expedition called ArcWatch-1. The team of almost 100 crew and scientists measured sea [...] properties, recorded the currents and chemical properties of the ocean and investigated life in and under the ice, in the open water and at the bottom of the deep sea. Their data show significant changes [...] world's first livestream of an ROV under-ice dive from the Central Arctic.

  • Projects

    approach to generate essential knowledge on Arctic sea ice variability, a crucial indicator or ‘canary in the coal mine’ for the Arctic and global climate state. If greenhouse gas [...] with webODV services for supporting quality control procedures of ocean temperature profiles and the generation of new Arctic data products. Contact: Sebastian Mieruch-Schnülle Antarctic Sea Ice Reconstruction [...] “ (Processes and impacts of climate change in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Canadian Arctic), a collaborative project between the University of Bremen, the Alfred Wegener Institute, and a consortium

  • Mobile benthic Systems

    self-discharge of the battery in -1.75°C bottom waters of the deep Arctic Ocean. TRAMPER can be deployed with pin-point accuracy by means of a video-controlled cabled launching system. After the deployment [...] benthic oxygen flux studies in remote deep sea ecosystems , OCEANS 2016 MTS/IEEE Monterey, doi: 10.1109/OCEANS.2016.776121.