• Which types of jellyfish are there in the Arctic Ocean today – and which will still be there tomorrow?

    research group, which will use cutting-edge technologies to create a jellyfish inventory for the Arctic Ocean. The group will receive financial support from the Helmholtz Association and the Alfred Wegener

  • Coastlines’ contribution to climate change possibly underestimated

    result of accelerated climate change, whole sections of coastline rapidly thaw, and erode into the Arctic Ocean. A new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters now shows that large amounts [...] of carbon dioxide are potentially being produced along these eroding permafrost coastlines in the Arctic.

  • North pole soon to be ice free in summer

    Climate Research
    The Arctic Ocean in summer will very likely be ice free before 2050, at least temporally. The efficacy of climate-protection measures will determine how often and for how long. These

  • Celebrating 40 Years of the Alfred Wegener Institute

    Anniversary
    40 years of research in the Arctic, Antarctic and in coastal regions: on 15 July, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) celebrates its 40 th [...] and internationally recognised centre for climate research in the two polar regions and the world’s oceans.

  • Polarstern returns to MOSAiC floe

    forward to continuing the one-year-long MOSAiC expedition and its research on the ocean, ice and atmosphere in the Arctic. Earlier this week, their predecessors from Leg 3 returned to Bremerhaven on board

  • The seafloor of Fram Strait is a sink for microplastic from the Arctic and North Atlantic Ocean

    concentrations at the ocean floor. Using model-based simulations, they have also found an explanation for this high level of pollution. According to their findings, the two main ocean currents in Fram Strait [...] Marine Pollution
    Working in the Arctic Fram Strait, scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) have found microplastic throughout the water column [...] microscopically small plastic particles into the region between Greenland and Spitsbergen from both the Arctic and the North Atlantic. While passing through the Strait, many particles eventually drift to the

  • A fortress of ice and snow

    suitable ice floe, where they will set up the research camp for their one-year-long drift through the Arctic Ocean. Consequently, one of the most important milestones in the expedition has been reached ahead of

  • Past Highlights

    proxies TEXH86 and UK’37 Long-term winter warming trend in the Siberian Arctic during the mid- to late Holocene Back from Antarctica Ocean surface temperature variability: Large model–data differences at decadal [...] profiles Flat Meridional Temperature Gradient in the Early Eocene in the Subsurface Rather than Surface Ocean Layering of surface snow and firn at Kohnen Station, Antarctica - noise or seasonal signal? Assessing

  • Merged Analysis and Forecasting

    of an Arctic Sea Ice–Ocean Model by a Genetic Algorithm, doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-18-0360.1 Sumata, H., Kauker, F., Karcher, M. und Gerdes, R., 2019b: Covariance of Optimal Parameters of an Arctic Sea Ice–Ocean [...] the Arctic summer minimum sea ice extent in September from the beginning of the melting season in May/June on. While the strongest greenhouse gas induced changes are currently observed in the Arctic, it [...] However, this approach neglects all feedbacks of the sea ice-ocean system on the atmosphere. Since 2015 the initial state of the sea ice-ocean model is constrained by sea ice observations (data assimilation)

  • Ice Ocean Dynamics

    the Eurasian shelf seas. Ocean waters with salinities below the average salinity of the Arctic Ocean also contribute positively to the fresh water balance of the Arctic Ocean. Such waters flow in from [...] er-Institut) Figure 1: Surface circulation of the Arctic Ocean (Graphic: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) Figure 2: Mid-depth circulation in the Arctic Ocean, which is fed from the Atlantic. 129 Iodine releases [...] blue line shows the total Arctic (liquid + sea ice) freshwater content (integrated in the area in blue on the map) (Graphic: T. Kovacz, Alfred-Wegener-Institut) The Arctic Ocean receives freshwater by run-off