(17/18 Sep 18). A new week begins - fog, calm sea, ice free. Nothing reminds us that we are in the Arctic Ocean (but this may change soon when are steaming northwards end of this week!).

to-measure ecosystem processes from the water’s surface to the deep seas of the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans using marker pigments. After completing her PhD, from 1998 she worked at Scripps Institution of [...] microplastic in Arctic sea ice in 2018, which attracted considerable media attention, Ilka Peeken has given frequent interviews and talks at events and in schools. Furthermore, she advises the Arctic Council on [...] Kiel, where, until 2008, she studied the effect of the micronutrient iron on algae in the Southern Ocean (in-situ iron fertilisation experiments “EisenEx” and “EIFEX”). In addition, she focused on which

record levels found in Arctic sea ice Find out more > BBC | 24.04.2018 Record concentration of microplastics found in Arctic Find out more > Dialogue & Lectures Policy advice Arctic Monitoring & Assessment [...] in the oceans is a current and growing problem, since every year several million metric tons of plastic find their way from the land to the water. Plastic particles are broken down in the ocean by sunlight [...] Climate change is especially putting the polar regions under pressure. Environmental changes in the Arctic result primarily from the decline in the area of sea ice and the decrease in its thickness, since

collected data can be used, for example, to study changes in the freshwater content of the upper Arctic Ocean, as in the NORTHATLANTIC project. Together with higher-precision data from ship-based expeditions [...] drifting measurement platforms that record vertical profiles of water mass properties in the ice-covered oceans. The systems are moored on the ice and measure temperature, salinity, and pressure in the upper 800 [...] online. The deployment of these autonomous measuring systems is coordinated through the International Arctic Buoy Programme. Contacts Dr. Benjamin Rabe +49(471)4831-2403 Benjamin Rabe@awi. Dr. Mario Hoppmann

Extent of the Arctic ice sheets during the last glacial (Graphic: Catalina Gebhardt) In contrast to the continent Antarctica, the Arctic region consists of a large marine basin. Therefore, Arctic ice sheets [...] Siberia-Chukchi Ice Sheet. During their maximum extent, these ice sheets reached far into the Arctic Ocean, and signs of glacial overprint can be found as far north as at the North Pole. Many studies have [...] sheet is found on Greenland, but in the past, several other ice sheets covered large areas of the Arctic realm. The most important ones were the Laurentide Ice Sheet on North America, the Svalbard-Barents

Polarstern returns from the “Trans-Arctic Survey of the Arctic in Transition” (TransArc) expedition, intended to record physical, biological and chemical changes in the Arctic Ocean. One highlight of the expedition: [...] 2012-10.2012 – During the Polarstern’s 27th stay in the Arctic and in the context of the “Sea ice - ocean - seafloor interactions in the changing Arctic” (IceAr) expedition, e.g. long-term changes in this [...] on yet another Arctic expedition – its 29th. The expedition, officially designated “Transitions in the Arctic Seasonal Sea Ice Zone” (TRANSSIZ), was planned by the international “Arctic in Rapid Transition”

Climate Research
The Arctic Ocean in summer will very likely be ice free before 2050, at least temporally. The efficacy of climate-protection measures will determine how often and for how long. These

sea surface temperature observations to constrain upper ocean properties in an Arctic sea ice-ocean data assimilation system. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans , 124, 4723-4743, doi:10.1029/2019JC015073 Pradhan, H [...] unstructured-grid ocean model under Earth System Modeling Framework, Ocean Modelling, 102546, ​ doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2025.102546 . Bunsen, F., J. Hauck, L. Nerger, S. Torres-Valdés. (2025) Ocean carbon sink [...] (2018) Arctic-wide sea-ice thickness estimates from combining satellite remote sensing data and a dynamic ice-ocean model with data assimilation during the CryoSat-2 period. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans , 123

well as ocean observations (sea-surface temperature) to optimize the initial state of the sea ice-ocean system for short-term (up to 6 days) forecasts. ICEDAS was build around the sea ice-ocean model NAOSIM [...] predict the Arctic summer minimum sea-ice extent in September from the beginning of the melting season in May/June on. AWI is participating in the SIO since 2008 by using a coupled sea-ice ocean model (NAOSIM) [...] However, this approach neglects all feedback of the sea ice-ocean system onto the atmosphere. This year (2015) the initial state of the sea ice-ocean model has been constrained by sea-ice observations in a

(ASSW) and other international Arctic conferences. As an observer on the Arctic Council, the most important forum on the Arctic, he worked with decision-makers from Arctic countries, and with representatives [...] the Arctic. He served on the planning committee for the International Polar Year 2007/2008 and numerous other committees involved in Arctic research. His duties included organising the annual Arctic Science [...] indigenous peoples in the Arctic. Since 2017, Volker Rachold has headed the German Arctic Office at the AWI and has advised federal ministries on matters concerning the Arctic. In 2018, his office was