• Permafrost Resources

    you to travel to the Canadian Arctic. Visual impressions and conversations with Arctic inhabitants and scientists allow you to experience life on permafrost and the [...] the climate system. The background is the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere (SROCC) , which was published in 2019. Hugues Lantuit: Collapsing Arctic coastlines | Horizons 2019 Presentation This [...] four pages. Julia Boike, Alfred Wegener Institute, Permafrost, Arctic Circle 2015 Presentation This presentation was held at the Arctic Circle Conference in October 2015. Julia Boike talks about the

  • Ingo Sasgen

    rise; the remaining third is primarily due to the warming of the oceans, which causes seawater to expand. Accordingly, the development of our planet’s ice sheets and glaciers will to a considerable extent [...] been set in motion that will have lasting consequences. In the Arctic, temperatures are rising twice as quickly as the global average; as a result, the Greenland ice sheet’s loss of mass has accelerated

  • Permafrost Change

    together with video and audio recordings from expeditions to the Arctic, will help illustrate the thawing of the permafrost, and the fieldwork involved in investigating it. In May 2019, the ERC PETA-CARB [...] changing. 3D print of a permafrost landscape How do you imagine an Arctic landscape characterized by permafrost? The answer is visualized by a 3-dimensional print of an Arctic landscape in Northeast Siberia [...] exercises in small groups, everyone was gathered for a few Arctic and Antarctic short movies and a final discussion and Q&A session. All participants, supervisors and the “Permafrost im Wandel” team

  • Completed Projects

    of (sub)mesoscale eddies in the Arctic Ocean, especially in the MOSAiC period in comparison with the past. Interactions of the ocean with the atmosphere and sea ice, as [...] that shape the ocean hydrography and influence the mixed layer dynamics. However, their properties and precise roles in the Arctic Ocean are still poorly [...] of the global model will be increased to 1 km in the whole Arctic Ocean and further refined to subkilometer scales at the MOSAiC sites. The decades-long eddy-resolving model results for the Arctic

  • FLO CHAR

    FLO CHAR The project "Fluxes from Land to Ocean: How Coastal Habitats in the Arctic Respond" (FLO CHAR) focuses on the biogeochemical effects of climate change on the most rapidly evolving ecosystem on Earth, the shallow Arctic coastal environment. Background of Project FLO CHAR: Accelerated climate change in the Arctic is dramatically altering terrestrial [...] and infrastructure on which local communities rely. Particularly Arctic coastal waters and shelves are impacted strongly as they sit at the interface between the warming land and ocean. At the same time

  • Awards and honors

    Pliocene, and the Miocene, possible long-term future) when the Arctic lost its white landscape and had a blue, ice-free ocean. Alexander Haumann , ERC Starting Grant VERTEXSO , January 2023 - Dcember [...] role of internal gravity waves in the warming Arctic Ocean. We want to identify if and how internal wave energy, wave-driven mixing, and sea ice melt are connected and will develop a [...] the ocean salinity and circulation and if these changes will amplify or dampen global warming in the future. Ocean tracers serve as a fingerprint

  • AWI researcher Markus Rex receives 2025 NOMIS Award

    MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition between the autumns of 2019 and 2020. For a year, the research ship drifted through the Arctic, frozen in ice. [...] gain a better understanding of the complex interaction between the ocean, the ice, the atmosphere and the ecosystem. Through the MOSAiC expedition, hundreds of scientists representing institutions from [...] global understanding of climate feedback mechanisms in the central Arctic.

  • Investigating unexplored ocean currents to the north of Greenland

    north of Greenland was the area of study in the last of three Arctic expeditions undertaken by the Polarstern since the end of May 2025. In the largely untraveled waters north and northeast of Greenland [...] the Alfred Wegener Institute were able to collect unique data on ocean circulation in the area. A chain of six moorings was also deployed to conduct autonomous measurements over the course of a full year

  • what we do

    Physics, Markus Rex led the MOSAiC-Expedition , the largest Arctic research expedition of our time, during which the research vessel “Polarstern” was frozen in the Arctic ice for a year to study the [...] . Scientists from 20 nations collected valuable data about the Arctic, which is crucial for understanding the future climate change. In the SR3 podcast “Aus dem Leben”, Markus Rex reports on his [...] and regulating the exchange of heat and moisture between the ocean and the atmosphere, explains Prof. Christian Haas. Changes in the extent and thickness of sea ice therefore serve as important

  • Marcel Nicolaus

    majority of the exchange processes between the atmosphere and the ocean. The observed sea ice changes affect the climate and ecosystem, extending to our latitudes. The decline of Arctic sea ice in area [...] more > The Barents Observer | 28.07.2020 Sea ice extent in the Arctic reaches historical low in July Find out more > Carbon Brief | 18.11.2019 Inside MOSAiC: How a year-long Arctic expedition is helping [...] Keynote speech | 3.11.2021 Keynote speech on MOSAiC – the greatest Arctic expedition of our time 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference Policy advice