(17/18 Sep 18). A new week begins - fog, calm sea, ice free. Nothing reminds us that we are in the Arctic Ocean (but this may change soon when are steaming northwards end of this week!).

Main REcoM references: Schourup-Kristensen, V., Wekerle, C., Wolf-Gladrow, D., Völker, C. (2018): Arctic Ocean biogeochemistry in the high resolution FESOM 1.4-REcoM2 model, Progress in Oceanography, 168, [...] (2014). A skill assessment of the biogeochemical model REcoM2 coupled to the Finite Element Sea Ice-Ocean Model (FESOM 1.3), Geoscientific Model Development, 7 (6), 2769-2802. doi:10.5194/gmd-7-2769-2014 [...] Losch, M. and Wolf-Gladrow, D.A. (2013). Seasonally different carbon flux changes in the Southern Ocean in response to the southern annular mode, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 27 (4), 1236-1245. doi:10

German Norwegian Ocean Forum
From the Arctic to the North Sea: this year’s German Norwegian Ocean Forum was held in Bremen’s Übersee Museum. The spotlight topic of the symposium, which was jointly organised [...] by the AWI, Innovation Norway, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy, was ‘The sustainable future of our oceans’. AWI Director Antje Boetius moderated the event.

Arctic Ocean
The Arctic has a serious litter problem: in just ten years, the concentration of marine litter at a deep-sea station in the Arctic Ocean has risen 20-fold. This was recently reported in

for employees, politics and society. As a major research centre, the AWI maintains stations in the Arctic and Antarctic, research vessels and polar aircraft. This is associated with a comparatively high [...] societal options for action. With our research on changes in the atmosphere, the cryosphere, the ocean and the coast, corresponding feedback mechanisms as well as the consequences of climate change for [...] habitats and species and the overall significance of the UN goals for sustainable development for oceans and polar regions and to keeping these issues present in the public consciousness. A particular challenge

in the Arctic: the AWI’s Hausgarten observatory in the Fram Strait, where experts from various disciplines are investigating all aspects of the ecosystem, from the water’s surface to the ocean depths, [...] in order to determine the impacts of climate change on biodiversity in the Arctic. After roughly a month underway, in mid-September Polarstern will reach the Norwegian port of Tromsø, where she’ll receive [...] her final preparations for the one-year-long MOSAiC expedition, prior to leaving for the Central Arctic on 20 September.

Assessing the contribution of ocean and sea ice initialization for seasonal predictionin the Arctic , Madlen Kimmritz Assimilation of sea ice freeboard observations into an ocean and ice analysis and forecast [...] zone from ocean gravity wave attenuation, Giacomo De Carolis Sea Ice Concentration uncertainties , Rasmus Tonboe Sea-ice thickness and snow depth observations from satellite altimeters in Arctic and Antarctica [...] and results) Sea ice observations and uncertainties Sea ice model parameterizations and coupling to ocean and atmosphere models Verification approaches for sea ice analyses and forecasts Automated prediction

Arctic Sea Ice
The sea-ice extent in the Arctic is nearing its annual minimum at the end of the melt season in September. Only circa 3.9 million square kilometres of the Arctic Ocean are covered by

of Tromsø. Escorted by the Russian icebreaker Akademik Fedorov, she will set sail for the Central Arctic. On board researchers will investigate a region that is virtually inaccessible in winter, and which [...] global climate. They will gather urgently needed data on the interactions between the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice, as well as on the ecosystem. Thanks to the collaboration between international experts

the ice of the Arctic, unknown habitats conceal an unexpected variety of living beings. On October 23rd, 46 scientists are expected to return to the home port in Bremerhaven from an Arctic expedition with [...] with the research vessel Polarstern. Over the past six weeks, they had explored life in ice, ocean and seabed with new robots and camera systems.