• 30 years of AWI airborne survey in the Arctic

    Research aircraft from 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 [...] aeroplane- and helicopter-based 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

  • Infrared Based Whale Detection - AWI OZA

    Polar bear mother and cup in the Arctic ocean Automatic Marine Mammal Mitigation by Infrared Imaging Use of loud seismic airguns and naval sonars in marine surveys is feared to potentially injure whales [...] adjustment. ARK 27.3 Aug - Oct 2012 1563h operational Operation of FIRST-Navy infrared imager in the Arctic Ocean. (+) Successful operation of sensor for entire expedtion without any member of the IR team on [...] hindrance which is less prevalent in off-shore seismic and renewable energy construction settings. Arctic Ocean PS101 Sep-Oct 2016 Ship based operation of FIRST-Navy infrared imager on RV Polarstern. (+) O

  • Torsten Kanzow

    Institute and Professor at the University of Bremen. Ocean currents Ocean topography of polar regions Ocean-ice sheet interaction Sea level Ocean currents play various important roles in the climate and in ecosystems [...] the two polar regions makes the Arctic and Southern Oceans key regions in the context of ocean circulation. At the AWI, we investigate the characteristics and role of ocean currents through interdisciplinary [...] mid-latitudes to the Arctic and Antarctic. Once there, this heat can delay the formation of sea ice or cause the floes to melt more rapidly. This applies to the ice covering the Arctic Ocean, as well as to the

  • Arctic Ocean: Greater Future acidification in summer

    Over the past 200 years, our planet’s oceans have absorbed more than a quarter of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. As a result, their acidity has increased by nearly 30 percent their [...] recently demonstrated. If this comes to pass, it could have far-reaching consequences for life in the ocean, as they report in the journal Nature.

  • Polarstern Turns 40

    the Alfred Wegener Institute’s flagship has successfully completed more than 130 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic and offered a temporary home for thousands of researchers from Germany and around the [...] safely traversed 1.8 million nautical miles. The ship is currently on an expedition in the Southern Ocean.

  • Fisheries Agreement for the Central Arctic

    We know little about the fish stocks in the central Arctic Ocean, and what we know about the local ecosystem is insufficient to ensure sustainable management. In response, in June 2021 the Agreement to [...] to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean – which includes a moratorium on fishing in the region – entered into force. The European Union and nine other countries signed the

  • Arctic Carbon Conveyor Belt Discovered

    million metric tons of CO 2 in the Arctic deep sea for millennia. In this region alone, a previously unknown transport route uses the biological carbon pump and ocean currents to absorb atmospheric CO 2

  • Biogeochemical Sensors

    C., Rabouille, C., Sauter, E., Schewe, I., Soltwedel, T. (2015): Benthic oxygen uptake in the Arctic Ocean margins - A case study at the deep-sea observatory HAUSGARTEN (Fram Strait). PLoS ONE 10(10): [...] Braeckman, U., Hasemann, C., Wenzhoefer, F. (2018): Deep-sea benthic communities and oxygen fluxes in the Arctic Fram Strait controlled by sea-ice cover and water depth. Biogeosciences 15: 4849-4869. Braeckman [...] Marchant, H., Buckner, C., Bienhold, C., Wenzhöfer, F. (2018): Carbon and nitrogen turnover in the Arctic deep sea: in-situ benthic community response to diatom and coccolithophorid phytodetritus. Biogeosciences

  • New dataset reveals biological “treasure trove” of Arctic Ocean

    A major new project will help benchmark biodiversity change in the Arctic Ocean and guide conservation efforts by identifying unique species and assessing their extinction risk. The research led by scientists

  • Polarstern Returns to Bremerhaven

    north of Svalbard, as well as ocean/glacier interactions off the coast of Greenland. Central research questions included how the ice conditions, ocean heat fluxes and ocean stratification determine sea-ice [...] The Research Vessel Polarstern was in the Arctic for the past seven weeks. There, the summertime sea-ice extent declined by ca. 40 percent over the past 40 years – making it one of the most visible impacts