• How is climate change affecting fauna in the Arctic?

      expedition headed for Svalbard. On board the research vessel Polarstern from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) all of these disciplines are focused on

    • The second week

      southern summer. With only an average 3/10 to 5/10 ice cover, Polarstern easily managed to pass this belt so that we soon arrived at our first station west of Thurston Island to sample marine sediments

    • Tools

      sediment cores from both polar oceans which were taken by RV Polarstern since 1983. The collection comprises more than 4000 cores from gravity, piston, kastenlot and giant box corers with a total length of more 12000 m as well as samples from multi corers. Polarstern Core Repository We develop the Ocean Data View (ODV) software for the analysis and visualization of marine and other environmental

    • Proposals

      Scientific proposals Ships Polarstern and Heincke The operators of the large and medium-sized German research vessels have jointly established a procedure which offers [...] optimizing operation. Proposals for the use of research vessels POLARSTERN and HEINCKE can only be submitted to the German Research Vessel Evaluation Panel (GPF) via the German Research Vessel Portal ( [...] in 2027 should, however, be submitted one year in advance. For POLARSTERN (main use): ARCTIC and ANTARCTIC: Preliminary coordination for main usage applications takes place annually at the POLARSTERN

    • MOSAiC expedition reaches the North Pole

      >At 12:45 pm on 19 August 2020 the German research icebreaker Polarstern reached the North Pole. The ship followed a route to the north of Greenland – and through a region that, in the past, was densely

    • Underwater robot scheduled to surface after a year exploring the Arctic depths

      Arctic Research
      On Tuesday, 22 August the research icebreaker Polarstern will depart the Norwegian port of Tromsø for a unique expedition to the Arctic: the autonomous underwater robot TRAMPER is scheduled

    • How climate change is altering the Arctic Ocean

      On 29 May 2025, the Polarstern research vessel set sail from Bremerhaven for the Arctic. The destination of the 95 expedition participants, led by the Alfred

    • Northernmost hot springs of the earth discovered

      of Bremen. On an expedition with the research icebreaker POLARSTERN, researchers discovered the northernmost hydrothermal field on Earth here – only around 300 kilometers from the North Pole. This

    • The forerunners of Greenland

      br>In the evening of 12 September the research icebreaker R/V Polarstern left the port of Tromsø (Norway). On board there are scientists from seven nations who cover the range from physical oceanography

    • Fleet + stations

      research platforms for scientists from all over the world. Ships Polarstern Heincke Uthörn Mya II Aade Stations Neumayer Station III Arctic Station AWIPEV Kohnen Station Marine Stations Helgoland and Sylt