Regional Climate Atlas of Germany

Icy frost, massive pack ice and powerful cyclones between polar night and all-day light: The Arctic makes it hard for science to unlock its secrets. For over 25 years now, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven explores the Arctic and Antarctic also from out of the air. In the past year, the German polar aeroplane POLAR 5 departed for a very special Arctic  measurement flight.

To 'To the Arctic and Back Again: Research from Aerospace'

Glassy and ethereally delicate – Mnemiopsis leidyi, or more popularly the warty comb jelly or sea walnut, looks harmless. Yet appearances are deceiving: At the beginning of the 1980s, the comb jellyfish travelled from the American West Coast as far as to the Black and Caspian Sea in the ballast water tanks of ships. Four years ago, it was also discovered in the Baltic and North Sea.

To 'The Sea Walnut on a Campaign of Conquest'

Today, weather forecasts are based on well-developed computer models, yet which still do not take into account many important processes within the atmosphere – for instance, floating particles such as dust, pollen or chemical compounds. Such so-called aerosols not only reduce visibility but influence also the temperature distribution across various altrimetric levels; they can react with one another and as condensation nuclei can cause the formation of clouds and precipitation.

To 'Small Parts, Strong Effects'

When Eskimos in Canada light gases, which have accumulated underneath the ice, and have a barbecue on the flame or when the ocean bed resembles an orange peel and features pockmarks of up to several hundred metres in diameter, the same phenomenon makes an appearance: In those regions, methane from the earth’s interior escapes to the surface. Some lakes in Canada bubble so intensively then, they seem to be boiling.

To 'Greenhouse Gases Bubbling up from Inside the Earth'

Climate change and population growth lead to an overexploitation of water resources in many regions of the world. UFZ scientists collaborate with colleagues from the TU Dresden and partners from science, the economy and politics within the “International Water Research Alliance Saxony” (IWAS) in order to analyse the regionally specific problems in five hydrologically sensitive regions of the earth. They develop feasible solutions with partners on site, which can also be transferred to comparable regions.

To 'Efficiently Purifying Sewage'