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The research vessel Polarstern sets off on its 27th Antarctic expedition on coming Monday, 25 October. The voyage will consist of four legs separated by port calls in Cape Town (South Africa), Punta Arenas (Chile) and back to Cape Town. The scientific focal points of the expedition are atmospheric research, oceanography and biology. In addition, the ship will bring supplies to Neumayer Station III, the Dallmann laboratory and the British Rothera station during the expedition. Over 180 researchers from institutes in 15 countries are taking part in the…

The research vessel Polarstern returned to Bremerhaven from a four-month expedition on Saturday, 9 October. On its 25th mission in the Arctic the ship covered a total of around 16,620 nautical miles (corresponding to about 30,780 kilometres). The focus of the three legs was on oceanographic, biological and geoscientific studies. Over 120 scientists and technicians from institutes in six nations took part in the expedition.

For four days the topic of ocean acidification will be the focus of marine and polar research. The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Hemholtz Association is hosting the conference and expects more than 200 scientists from all over Europe at the Conference Center Bremerhaven.

Bigger, more attractive and geared to the relevant scientific requirements: the Centre for Scientific Diving of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research at the Biological Institute Helgoland.

The extent of the sea ice in the Arctic will reach its annual minimum in September. Forecasts indicate that it will not be as low as in 2007, the year of the smallest area covered by sea ice since satellites started recording such data. Nevertheless, sea ice physicists at the Alfred Wegener Institute are concerned about the long-term equilibrium in the Arctic Ocean. They have indications that the mass of sea ice is dwindling because its thickness is declining.Around a third to half of the freshwater export from the Arctic Ocean takes place in this way –…

Bedrock has been reached Tuesday July 27 2010 at the deep ice core drilling site NEEM on the Greenland Ice Sheet at the depth 2537.36 m. The Eemian is the last interglacial period, when climate was warmer than today, and sea level 5 meters higher, and is our best analogue for future climate. Scientists from 14 nations participated in NEEM, the most international ice core effort to date. After five years of work, ice from the warm interglacial Eemian period, 130.000 to 115.000 years before present and even older ice has been recovered. The last 2 m of ice…

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association for the first time sent its Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) on an under-ice mission at about 79° North.

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association will be thirty years old on 15 July. Through its innovative scientific and excellent research infrastructure the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) has developed into one of the world’s leading internationally recognised centres for climate research on both polar regions and the oceans.

40,000 years ago rapid warming led to an increase in methane concentration. The culprit for this increase has now been identified. Mainly wetlands in high northern lati-tudes caused the methane increase, as discovered by a research team from the University of Bern and the German Alfred Wegener Institute.

A critical minimum for Arctic sea ice can also be expected for late summer 2010. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute and from KlimaCampus of the University of Hamburg have now published data in this context in the annual issue of Sea Ice Outlook.