• The gypsum gravity chute: A phytoplankton-elevator to the ocean floor

    Arctic Ocean
    Tiny gypsum crystals can make phytoplankton so heavy that they rapidly sink, hereby transporting large quantities of carbon to the ocean’s depths. Experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute [...] Institute recently observed this phenomenon for the first time in the Arctic. As a result of this massive algal transport, in the future large amounts of nutrients could be lost from the surface waters.

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    Nordic Seas Southern Ocean - Overturning Circulation Ocean-Ice Shelf Interaction Southern Ocean climate interactions (SO-Klim) Ocean Acoustics Group - AWI OZA Projects - AWI OZA Acoustic Ecology - AWI OZA Infrared [...] Focus Synera Arctic Pulse Antarctica InSync MOSAiC Expedition UN Decade of Ocean Science UN Plastics Treaty UN Ocean Treaty UN Climate Change Conference Expedition Ships Research Vessel and Icebreaker [...] LTER Observatory HAUSGARTEN FRAM Ocean Observing System Publications Data Geosciences Geophysics Research Focus Formation of the Arctic Basin Ultraslow spreading mid-ocean ridges OBS studies Hydrothermal

  • The warmer-than-present past

    patterns and linkages. Establishment of sea surface temperature and sea ice records for the Arctic and Southern Ocean covering the MIS 5e warm interval. [...] latitudes are particularly sensitive and vulnerable to future global warming. The potential of polar oceans and their marginal seas to amplify on a global scale warm climate conditions and sea level change

  • Modell Simulations

    sea ice models used for? Example of a sea ice model (Graphic: Alfred Wegener Institut) The Arctic areas - ocean even more than land - are difficult to reach, for several winter months not at all. Instruments [...] time. Variability is determined e.g. by air and ocean temperature. The velocity in turn depends on the thickness of the ice, the wind conditions and the ocean current. The changes of the sea ice over time [...] This explains the expression "compute the model forward in time". The area of interest- here the Arctic Ocean is overlaid with a three-dimensional grid. The geometry of this grid can be as simple or complicated

  • AWI Journal Subscriptions

    Elsevier. [ Impact Factor: 3.513 ] Print Ausgabe: 1.1981 - 85.2007 Z 366 Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. / Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado. Print Ausgabe: 31.1999 - [...] td-1">Z 2180 Ocean dynamics. / Springer [ Impact Factor: 1.612 ] Print Ausgabe: 52.2001 - 57.2007 Z 2183 Ocean modelling [...] dd tr-187"> eOnly Report of the ... Meeting / Arctic Ocean Science Board. <td class="td-last

  • ESA Climate Change Initiative

    production of data set time series of variables that describe the state of the atmosphere, land, ocean and the cryosphere. Sea ice is listed as one of the 13 Essential Climate Variables and the aim of [...] group is to produce datasets of sea ice concentration sea ice thickness sea ice drift that include Arctic and Antarctic sea ice and the respective uncertainties. The data sets both parameters will consist [...] thickness time series from data of the ERS-1, ERS-2, EnviSat and CryoSat-2 radar altimeter missions of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. The production of a time-series of Antarctic sea-ice thickness is based on

  • Freshwater fluxes

    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 [...] shows the total Arctic (liquid + sea ice) freshwater content (integrated in the area in blue on the map) freFresh water content cha (Graphic: T. Kovacs, Alfred-Wegener-Institut) The Arctic Ocean receives freshwater [...] interchange of waters between the Arctic and the Nordic seas results in in seasaw fluctuations in fresh water content between the basins. To reach an equilibrium, the Arctic Ocean must on averageexport freshwater

  • 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

  • Remote Sensing

    sea ice covered regions in the Arctic and Antarctic oceans make satellite remote sensing the only tool that is able to obtain a full picture of sea ice conditions. The Sea Ice Physics section is actively [...] Sea Ice Remote Sensing Map of Arctic sea ice thickness (April 2015) obtained from CryoSat-2 data (Graphic: Alfred Wegener Institut) Contact: Dr. Stefan Hendricks The inaccessibility and sheer size of sea [...] the European Space Agency (ESA) is based on a radar altimeter that fully maps Antarctic sea ice and Arctic sea ice up to a latitude of 88°N. This coverage is unparalleled in comparison with all previous and

  • Data Assimilation

    which are a set of ocean and sea ice variables optimally combining observations and a model. The analysis fields are applied for a variety of ocean and sea ice studies in the Arctic Ocean, and also provide [...] used to synthesize model results and observed data in the Arctic Ocean. The systems have been successfully applied to North Atlantic/Arctic Ocean Sea Ice Model (NAOSIM) developed at the Alfred Wegener Institute [...] Institute (AWI). We are currently working to apply the systems to Finite-volumE Sea ice-Ocean Model (FESOM2), also developed in AWI. Contact: Dr. Hiroshi Sumata Seasonal cycle (left) and interannual variation