News

Making climate research accessible – it was with this goal in mind that the Alfred Wegener Institute released the magazine “Tracking Changes”. In articles, interviews and infographics, readers will come to realise why pursuing climate research in the polar regions is so vital. Further, the engaging and highly informative read will make them ideally prepared for the next time they find themselves in a discussion about climate change.

Storing carbon dioxide (CO2) deep below the seabed is one way to counteract the increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. But what happens if such storage sites begin to leak and CO2 escapes through the seafloor? Answers to this question have now been provided by a study dealing with the effects of CO2 emissions on the inhabitants of sandy seabed areas.

On the basis of a unique global comparison of data from core samples extracted from the ocean floor and the polar ice sheets, AWI researchers have now demonstrated that, though climate changes have indeed decreased around the globe from glacial to interglacial periods, the difference is by no means as pronounced as previously assumed. Until now, it was believed that glacial periods were characterised by extreme temperature variability, while interglacial periods were relatively stable. The researchers publish their findings advanced online in the…

Since its first meeting in The Hague on 3-5 February 1958, SCAR has grown an international network of thousands of scientists who share a common ambition to carry out Antarctic science for the benefit of society. The former AWI-director Prof. Dr. Karin Lochte is the committee’s Vice President for Capacity Building, Education and Training.

Fourteen partners from thirteen countries including two North American partners from USA and Canada have joint forces to improve the capacities for marine-based research in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean. In the project “ARICE- Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium”, they aim at better coordinating the existing polar research fleet, at offering scientists access to six research icebreakers and at collaborating closely with the maritime industry. The European Commission funds the project, which is coordinated by the German Alfred Wegener Institute,…

With the arrival and unloading of the EDEN ISS greenhouse at the edge of the Antarctic ice shelf, the construction process has begun. In the coming weeks, a team from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) will set up the greenhouse, designed for extreme environments, just 400 metres from the German Neumayer Station III in the Antarctic. It will be run by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), which is working on the EDEN ISS project together with DLR.

How is the global climate connected to regional variations in temperature and precipitation? And what is the possible range of future climate variations? To help find answers to these questions, Dr Thomas Laepple will receive 1.5 million euros over the next five years from the European Research Council (ERC) to support his Young Investigators Group SPACE. Together with a five-member team, the climate researcher from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Potsdam will work to combine modern observational data…

On Wednesday 20 December 2017, the research vessel Polarstern set sail south from Bremerhaven. After a stop in Cape Town, it will deliver supplies to the Neumayer Station III, and the researchers will subsequently gather vital data at the Filchner-Rønne Ice Shelf in the southern part of the Weddell Sea, which is permanently covered by sea ice, in order to examine the melt rates of the Antarctic glaciers. From March 2018, biologists will investigate marine life around the Antarctic Peninsula. Oceanographic studies will be carried out on the return trip to…

In cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute scientists at DESY, a Research Centre of the Helmholtz Association, have developed novel lenses that enable X-ray microscopy with record resolution in the nanometre regime.

A special issue in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences presents new research efforts towards a predictive understanding of Arctic climate change and its linkage with Eurasian mid-latitude climate and weather.