News

An eight-month voyage through the Arctic Ocean, without ship or travel route: the North Pole drifting station NP-35 represents an unusual project of the International Polar Year

The Helmholtz Association has granted 300,000 euros yearly, over a total of 3 years, for the training of young scientists in Bremerhaven and Bremen.

Deutschlands kleinstes Forschungsschiff, das bemannte Tauchboot JAGO des Leibniz-Instituts für Meereswissenschaften (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel hat auf seinem 1000-sten Tauchgang das Röst-Riff besucht. Es ist das größte bisher bekannte Kaltwasserkorallen-Riff südlich der norwegischen Lofoten-Inseln und liegt 350 Meter unter der Meeresoberfläche. Die Wissenschaftler untersuchen mit Hilfe des Tauchbootes die geologischen Strukturen im Untergrund der Riffe.

The Alfred Wegener Institute and the European Network of Excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis EUR-OCEANS invite to a joint press conference to discuss those issues with a panel of scientists and attend the launch of a short film done for the general public by the EUR-OCEANS Outreach Team.

With a new coat of paint, thorough ship inspection, and sailing under the flag of the Helmholtz Association, Polarstern begins to make its way toward the north on May 29. The flagship of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), is initially heading to Northern Norway and then on to Spitsbergen during its 22nd Arctic expedition.

Korean and German research institutes would like to increase their collaboration in the area of Polar and Marine research. In order to achieve this, scientists from both countries are coming together for a meeting in Bremerhaven from 22nd-25th May. The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine research (a member of the Helmholtz Association) is the host.

Arctic atmosphere very clean this year:

Under the direction of two of the Helmholtz Centres, i.e. the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the German Aerospace Center, an international research group is currently investigating the Arctic atmosphere above Spitsbergen. Aim of this year’s ASTAR 2007 project (Arctic Study of Tropospheric Aerosol, Clouds and Radiation) is an accurate description of the Arctic atmosphere during spring.
 

In 2008, scientists will, for the very first time, create a continual profile of ice thickness in the Arctic, extending from the Canadian coast across the North Pole to Siberia. At the core of the project lies the crossing of the North Pole by zeppelin.

Research aircrafts observe further decline of ice cover

Central Europe is not the only place where the past, warm winter has caused record temperatures. Unusually mild temperatures also prevented ice formation in the Arctic, specifically in the region around Spitsbergen. This is the conclusion drawn by scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). Both institutes are members of the Helmholtz Association of German research centres. They aim to span the Helmholtz-network to observe…

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) approves technical development work for research icebreaker and drilling vessel AURORA BOREALIS

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is receiving more than 5 million Euro from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The funds will be dedicated to continue technical development of the new European research icebreaker AURORA BOREALIS, together with the Department of Naval Architecture at the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen. Simultaneously, the…