Research Vessel Polarstern setting out for the Arctic - Focusing on changes in the ice cover, ocean currents and effects on the marine biota

    Press release

    The great makeover begins: AWI is building new long-term observatory for Arctic Ocean observations

    Press release

    Higher Water Temperatures and Reduced Ice Cover In the Arctic Ocean

    Press release

    The sea-ice is getting thinner – A closer look at the climate and ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean

    Press release

    JAGO and Polarstern, an unbeatable team on a coldwater coral expedition in Arctic ocean

    Press release

    Fire under the ice - International expedition discovers gigantic volcanic eruption in the Arctic Ocean

    Press release

    Continued warming of the Arctic Ocean - Northernmost position of the new research vessel Maria S Merian

    Press release

    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 Wegener Institute, is the AWI Hausgarten, a [...] y situated between Svalbard and Greenland. There they will investigate how the ecosystems of the Arctic deep sea are reacting to changing environmental conditions as a result of rapid climate change. The [...] June, will focus on benthic and plankton communities in the open water and physical changes in the ocean.

    How waves stir up the Arctic Ocean - new Emmy Noether Group at the AWI

    inside the ocean. They can grow as large as skyscrapers, travel thousands of kilometres and have a major impact on the transport of heat and nutrients. When they break, the surrounding ocean water is mixed [...] mixed. Oceanographer Dr Friederike Pollmann and her new Junior Researcher Group Artemics (Arctic internal wave energetics and mixing and their interdependence with sea ice in changing climate conditions) [...] conditions) at the Alfred Wegener Institute want to investigate how these waves work in the Arctic, how they are related to sea ice retreat and what this means for the future.

    Ocean: FRAM

    look beyond the moorings and the Hausgarten into the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The Fram Strait connects the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic. Unlike the shallow water conjunction to the Pacific [...] Arctic long-term observatory FRAM 5,000 metres seawater plus ice separate the seafloor from boisterous life in the upper water layers of the Arctic Ocean. Additionally there is a strong change between [...] deep and thus the main region for exchange of water between the Arctic and the global oceans. Due to its importance for the global ocean circulation the Fram Strait has long since been a focus area of