• The Arctic is facing a decline in sea ice that might equal the negative record of 2012

    Arctic sea ice
    Sea ice physicists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), are anticipating that the sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean this summer may [...] after evaluating current satellite data about the thickness of the ice cover. The data show that the arctic sea ice was already extraordinarily thin in the summer of 2015. Comparably little new ice formed

  • The Arctic Ocean was never completely frozen – not even during the Ice Ages

    entire Arctic Ocean during the coldest phases of the Ice Ages. A new study, now published in Science Advances , questions this idea. The research team found no evidence of such a permanent, pan-Arctic ice [...] ice shelf. Instead, the Arctic Ocean appears to have been covered by seasonal sea ice, allowing open water—and life—to persist even during the harshest glacial periods of the past 750,000 years. This discovery [...] discovery sheds new light on how the Arctic has responded to climate extremes in the past—and how it may evolve in the future.

  • The Arctic Ocean was covered by a shelf ice and filled with freshwater

    the scientists could demonstrate that the Arctic Ocean as well as the Nordic Seas did not contain sea-salt in at least two glacial periods. Instead, these oceans were filled with large amounts of freshwater [...] Geosciences
    The Arctic Ocean was covered by up to 900 m thick shelf ice and was filled entirely with freshwater at least twice in the last 150,000 years. This surprising finding, reported in the latest

  • Technology and Logistics

    backbone of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is the Argo system, which uses an array of >3000 profiling floats (Figure 2). Until recently, Argo was restricted to ice free oceanic regions, as the floats [...] Technology and Logistics Observations of the ocean’s temperature and salinity at different locations and depths – key parameters to assess its state - depended until recently on ship-based expeditions [...] and deep-sea moorings, limiting our ability to monitor oceanic change at adequate resolution and over necessary periods in time and space. However, with the turn of the century, automated systems gained

  • Technology Transfer - Offers to the private sector

    enough, some of these are made public. The use in research applications is usually free. Examples: Ocean Data View, a programme to visualise large geo-referenced data files UltraMassExplorer, a browser-based [...] Quicklinks Technology transfer - From research to business Technology Transfer Office Spin-offs Ocean Data View Inventions, innovative technologies and services originate, e.g. from the following R&D [...] Alfred-Wegener-Institute is one of the few institutions worldwide that conduct research both in the Arctic and Antarctic. The expertise of AWI with research in polar regions and the operation of the required

  • Team - AWI OZA

    l factors to explore the ecological role of marine mammals in the Arctic Ocean. Data stem from the interdisciplinary Arctic FRAM ocean observatory, which provides a unique opportunity to gain insight into [...] distribution patterns of marine mammals in polar seas. During my PhD I am analyzing polar ocean (Southern Ocean and Arctic Ocean) passive acoustic monitoring data to investigate the influence of the three soundscape [...] into these interrelationships. I strongly believe that a holistic understanding of the Arctic Ocean ecosystem is essential in view of future management and conservation strategies to preserve this unique

  • Team

    Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean using Imaging Flow Cytometry and PDMPO Judith Matz, M.Sc. Thesis title: Investigation of new and regenerated primary production during summer in Arctic Fjords using 13C and [...] Antonia Thielecke (Photo: Ruben Schulte-Hillen) Antonia Thielecke, M.Sc. Thesis Title: Response of Arctic phytoplankton to declining silicic acid Katharina (Katha) Paetz, M.Sc. Katharina (Katha) Paetz, M [...] and 15N Anna Naberhaus, B.Sc. Titel der Masterarbeit: Characterisation of the Arctic Phytoplankton community at the Chlorophyll maximum at the Hausgarten observatory in spring 2023 using microscopy and

  • Team

    remote sensing (ocean color, altimetry, infrared). But I am currently focusing more on BGC modelling in the framework of the H2020-Project COMFORT and the BMBF nuArctic projects. nuArctic investigates nutrient [...] examined the decadal variability of the carbon cycle in the Indian Ocean region. For the Ph.D. I am doing Ocean Biogeochemical Modeling for Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement in deep and bottom water formation regions [...] studied marine sciences and have worked with global ocean biogeochemistry models as well as observations in the past. I am interested in understanding ocean carbon cycling and its interactions with climate

  • Team

    melt events on stable oxygen isotope records from the Arctic. Due to rising temperatures over recent decades, the frequency of melt events in Arctic regions has increased. However, current models describing [...] Resolution in the harbour of Fremantle before International Ocean Discovery Program Exp. 356 (Photo: Jeroen Groeneveld) Reconstructing past ocean water conditions using geochemistry in foraminifera I am a [...] e structure of climate change) and the RECORDER research unit of the cluster of excellence: “The Ocean Floor – Earth’s Uncharted Interface”. It is joint effort of the Earth System Diagnostics group of

  • Team

    Prof. Dr. Guido Grosse Arctic permafrost landscape dynamics and Earth System feedbacks Permafrost coring in the Fish Creek Delta, North Alaska (Photo: Alfred Wegener Institut) Arctic permafrost landscapes [...] DOCconcentrations, the origin of DOC and the temporal variability in two permafrost regions along the Arctic Ocean. My study areas are the Lena Delta and Bykovsky Peninsula in Siberia, and a transect from Teshekpuk [...] Global warming will continue to warm the Arctic resulting in the degradation of permafrost soils. This leads to large-scale ground subsidence. Vast regions of the Arctic are covered with ice-rich silts containing