Long-term data reveal: The deep Greenland Sea is warming faster than the World Ocean

Bremerhaven. Recent warming of the Greenland Sea Deep Water is about ten times higher than warming rates estimated for the global ocean. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research recently published these findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. For their study, they analysed temperature data from 1950 to 2010 in the abyssal Greenland Sea, which is an ocean area located just to the south of the Arctic Ocean.

The CTD probe is lowered into the depths.
Photo: Thomas Steuer,
Alfred-Wegener-Institut

Since 1993, oceanographers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), have carried out regularly expeditions to the Greenland Sea on board the research ice breaker Polarstern to investigate the changes in this region. The programme has always included extensive temperature and salinity measurements. For the present study, the AWI scientists have combined these long term data set with historical observations dating back to the year 1950. The result of their analysis: In the last thirty years, the water temperature between 2000 metres depth and the sea floor has risen by 0.3 degrees centigrade.

‘This sounds like a small number, but we need to see this in relation to the large mass of water that has been warmed’ says the AWI scientist and lead author of the study, Dr. Raquel Somavilla Cabrillo. ‘The amount of heat accumulated within the lowest 1.5 kilometres in the abyssal Greenland Sea would warm the atmosphere above Europe by 4 degrees centigrade.  The Greenland Sea is just a small part of the global ocean. However, the observed increase of 0.3 degrees in the deep Greenland Sea is ten times higher than the temperature increase in the global ocean on average. For this reason, this area and the remaining less studied polar oceans need to be taken into consideration’. 

The cause of the warming is a change in the subtle interplay of two processes in the Greenland Sea: the cooling by deep convection of very cold surface waters in winter and the warming by the import of relatively warm deep waters from the interior Arctic Ocean.  “Until the early 1980s, the central Greenland Sea has been mixed from the top to the bottom by winter cooling at the surface making waters dense enough to reach the sea floor” explains Somavilla. “This transfer of cold water from the top to the bottom has not occurred in the last 30 years. However, relatively warm water continues to flow from the deep Arctic Ocean into the Greenland Sea. Cooling from above and warming through inflow are no longer balanced, and thus the Greenland Sea is progressively becoming warmer and warmer.”

Increase of water temperature in the deep Greenland Sea

Mean temperature (°C) from 2000 m to the bottom in the central Greenland Sea (74-76°N, 0-6°W) from 1950 to 2009 (red line). The shading shows the range of temperature from 2000 m (warmer limit) to the bottom (colder limit). Source: Alfred-Wegener-Institut

These modified conditions provide AWI scientists with unique research opportunities: “We use these changes as a natural experiment. The warming allows us to calculate how much water flows from the deep central Arctic into the Greenland Sea” says Prof. Dr. Ursula Schauer, head of the Observational Oceanography Department at the Alfred Wegener Institute, about this project and adds: “We observe here a distinct restructuring of the Arctic Ocean. This is a very slow process, and its documentation requires long term observations.”

Self-portrait of AWI scientist Raquel Somavilla Cabrillo,
first author of the new study.
Photo: Raquel Somavilla, Alfred-Wegener-Institut

To fully understand, how the world’s oceans react to climate change, scientists need to investigate the Arctic Ocean in more detail. ‘Due to its large volume and its thermal inertia the deep ocean is a powerful heat buffer for climate warming. Especially, the polar oceans are scarcely studied. If we want to understand the role of the deep ocean in the climate system, we need to expand the measurements to remote regions like the Arctic,” AWI-scientist Schauer says. For that, she has already planned further Polarstern expeditions. In 2015, Ursula Schauer and her group will go back to the Arctic.

Glossary: Why are the deep waters from the interior Arctic Ocean warm?

The mean temperature of the deep water masses from the interior Arcic Ocean is -0,9 degrees centigrade. That is much warmer than the surface waters of the Greenland Sea, which cool down to  -1,8 degrees in winter. However, where does the warmth of the deep Arctic waters come from? It is the result of a long chain reaction, happening in the shallow seas on the edge of the Arctic Ocean – right there, where in winter sea ice formation takes place. When the sea ice is formed the salt, which is present in the water, does not get enclosed. It leaves the ice instead and increases the salinity and density of the water layer below the ice. Due to their rising density these waters get heavier and start sinking. One can compare this sinking process of the water masses with a snowball falling down a freshly snow-covered slope. The longer the snowball rolls, the more snow get attached to its body. That means, while rolling down the Arctic shelf, the salty sinking water masses come across a layer of warm Atlantic water. They take part of the heat and salt in this Atlantic layer and transport it to deeper levels in the Arctic Ocean. At the bottom of the Arctic Ocean these sinking water masses form a body of warm deep water that later on streams out of the Arctic Ocean into the Greenland Sea.

Notes for editors:

The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters under the following original title:

R. Somavilla, U. Schauer and G. Budéus: Increasing amount of Arctic Ocean deep waters in the Greenland Sea, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 40, 4361–4366, doi:10.1002/grl.50775, 2013 – Der Link zur Onlineversion der Studie lautet: 

Your scientific contact persons at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) are:

• Dr. Raquel Somavilla Cabrillo (Tel.: +49(0)471- 4831-1816, E-Mail: Raquel.Somavilla.Cabrillo(at)awi.de ); Dr. Somavilla is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
• Prof. Ursula Schauer (Tel.: +49(0)471- 4831-1817, E-Mail: Ursula.Schauer(at)awi.de); Prof. Schauer is available for interviews in English and German.

Your contact person in the Department of Communications and Media Relations is Sina Löschke (Tel.: 0471-4831-2008, E-Mail: medien(at)awi.de)

The Alfred Wegener Institute conducts research in the Arctic and Antarctic and in the high and mid-latitude oceans.  The Institute coordinates German polar research and provides important infrastructure such as the research icebreaker Polarstern and stations in the Arctic and Antarctic to the international scientific world. The Alfred Wegener Institute is one of the 18 research centres of the Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific organisation in Germany.

ERC Advanced Grant for Professor Thomas Willnow - Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity Are Major Risk Factors for Alzheimer`s Disease

Professor Thomas Willnow of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, has been granted 2,4 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC) in Strasbourg, France, for the next five years. He was one of 284 top researchers in Europe, who received this prestigious ERC Advanced Research Grant in 2013. Overall the ERC has received 2 408 applications for this grant.

Professor Thomas Willnow;
Photo: David Ausserhofer,
Copyright: MDC

Professor Willnow`s research focuses on the link between metabolic disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer`s disease. Metabolic diseases include type 2 diabetes, high blood cholesterol levels (hypercholesterolemia), and overweight (obesity).

“These metabolic diseases not only cause myocardial infarction and strokes, but emerge as major risk factors for onset and progression of Alzheimer`s disease as well,” the cell biologist points out.

“Patients, suffering from type 2 diabetes display a 3-fold increased risk to develop Alzheimer`s disease. Also, apolipoprotein (APO) E, a regulator of blood cholesterol, represents the most important genetic risk factor for this neurodegenerative disease,” he says. Carriers of a variant of this gene are at a 4-fold higher risk to develop Alzheimer`s compared to other gene carriers.

Dual Role – Novel and Unique Research Project

However, the molecular mechanisms whereby dysregulation of glucose or cholesterol metabolism elicits noxious insults to the brain and causes neurodegeneration are poorly understood.

With the ERC research grant Professor Willnow hopes to shed light on these mechanisms by focusing on a novel class of signalling receptors his research group has been studying intensively since a number of years.

These signalling receptors, named VPS10P receptors for short, are not only involved in the regulation of survival of neurons in the brain, but also in the modulation of glucose and cholesterol metabolism.

Studying the dual role of these receptors is novel and unique, also that neuroscientists and metabolism researchers closely work together in this project.

Alarming Link

“The causal link between metabolism and neurodegeneration is alarming given the fact that metabolic disturbances such as obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and type 2 diabetes show a dramatic rise in incidence worldwide,” Professor Willnow points out.

“And Alzheimer`s disease is the most common form of age-related dementia. Currently there are approximately 35 million patients inflicted worldwide,” Professor Willnow said.

“Given the increasing life expectancy in industrialized countries but also in the emerging economies, the incidence of Alzheimer`s disease is believed to further rise to epidemic proportions in the near future with as much as half of all individuals above 80 years of age being affected,” the researcher warns.

With their research project Professor Willnow and his collaborators hope to gain new insights into the interaction between brain and metabolism. They hope that the unique group of receptors, they are studying now, may hold the key to understanding some of the unifying concepts in metabolic dysfunction and neurodegeneration.

Four ERC Advanced Research Grant Winners at MDC

Professor Willnow is one of five top researchers at the MDC that have been awarded with an ERC Advanced Research grant. Dr. Zsuszanna Izsvák and the two neurobiologists Professor Thomas Jentsch (MDC/Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie, FMP) and Professor Gary Lewin received this grant in 2011, and the immunologist Professor Klaus Rajewsky in 2010.

Contact:

Barbara Bachtler

Press Department

Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch

in the Helmholtz Association

Robert-Rössle-Straße 10; 13125 Berlin; Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 96

Fax:  +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 33

e-mail: presse@mdc-berlin.de

http://www.mdc-berlin.de/

Foundation under Public Law

Directors: Professor Walter Rosenthal, N.N.

Member of the  Hermann von Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres

Report reveals issues that may turn women away from careers in academic science

Lack of mentoring and career support along with a low number of female role models have been cited as key factors that may be driving women in science to move away from academic careers earlier than men, according to a qualitative study published by the Wellcome Trust.

The report highlights a number of interventions that funders and institutions could implement to create an environment that is more supportive of both women and men who would prefer to stay in academia but are put off by misconceptions of what a successful academic career entails. Recommendations include better career support at the PhD stage, developing a flexible approach to careers in academia and challenging some aspects of academic culture and working practices.

Professor Dame Kay Davies, Deputy Chairman of the Wellcome Trust, said: "For many women who leave science, the decision is a positive choice to move on to a fulfilling career beyond academia. This report suggests, however, that some women of exceptional potential would prefer to continue in research but are leaving because of concerns about their working environment. It's clear that funders, universities and employers must address this in a coordinated way to ensure that we hold on to the brightest minds in science."
The study builds on the findings of the Wellcome Trust Basic Science Career Tracker, an annual survey that tracks the career destinations of selected cohorts of Wellcome Trust-funded researchers, which shows that women are leaving academia at a higher rate than men, either immediately or shortly after completing their PhDs.

The qualitative study was carried out in autumn 2012 by Ipsos MORI, who conducted 59 in-depth telephone interviews and two online forums with women and men who had studied for a science PhD through one of the Wellcome Trust's Four-Year PhD Programmes.

The findings reveal that both men and women found a career in academia to be very rewarding but that there were risks associated with this, particularly during the first few years post-doctorate when researchers are trying to establish their careers. Both highlighted the difficulties of securing funding and the pressure to publish, as major challenges to success in the early years of a post-doctoral research career. Other aspects of academic culture, such as a culture of long working hours and the pressure to move institutions in order to be successful, seemed to act as a deterrent to both men and women, but were seen by both genders to disadvantage women more.

Women also noted that the absence of female role models for aspiring researchers makes it difficult to visualise what a successful career could look like. They also cited a competitive environment and the need for self-promotion, in conflict with a philosophy that success should be based on merit, as significant factors in their decisions to leave.

The qualitative study also looked at participants' motivations for choosing a PhD in the first place. The majority of those interviewed were motivated to start a PhD by their passion for science. A small proportion specifically began a PhD because they wished to pursue an academic research career and a few said that they started a PhD to facilitate a career outside of science.  Most participants reported that at the start of their PhD studies they had a lack of awareness of the range of potential careers options open to them once they completed their training. Not surprisingly, those who had a positive PhD experience had a greater inclination to pursue a career in academic research. However, pursuit of a career in academia at this early career stage was described as being risky, too risky for some.

The Wellcome Trust Basic Science Career Tracker was launched in 2009 and the results of the fifth wave of the survey are anticipated in November 2013.



Contact
Jen Middleton
Senior Media Officer, Wellcome Trust
T 020 7611 7262
E j.middleton@wellcome.ac.uk<mailto:j.middleton@wellcome.ac.uk>

Notes to Editors
Reference
Ipsos MORI. Risks and Rewards: How PhD students choose their careers<http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/stellent/groups/corporatesite/@sf_central_grants_admin/documents/web_document/wtp053947.pdf>. Wellcome Trust, London 2013.

About the Wellcome Trust Basic Science Career Tracker
The Wellcome Trust Evaluation Team launched the Basic Science Career Tracker (BSCT) in 2009 to track the career destinations of selected cohorts of Wellcome Trust-funded researchers and to provide the Trust with an understanding of the career choices of those we fund. The Tracker is also designed to help inform the Wellcome Trust's provision of research and career support.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Biomedical-science/Career-tracker/Basic-tracker/index.htm

About the Ipsos MORI qualitative study and methodology
A qualitative study was commissioned to explore the motivations and attitudes to career choices among former Wellcome Trust-funded Basic Science PhD students. We also investigated the reasons for the marked and different exit points from academic research for women PhD graduates compared to men. The study was conducted by Ipsos MORI in Autumn 2012. The format included individual telephone interviews with 59 participants, 28 men and 31 men. In addition, a further 30 former PhD students were invited to participate in two online forums of 15 participants. One of the forums included both men and women and the other involved only women.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/stellent/groups/corporatesite/@sf_central_grants_admin/documents/web_document/wtp053947.pdf

The sample was made of individuals who had studied for a science PhD as recipients of an award through one of the Wellcome Trust's Four-Year PhD Programmes, who had started their PhD studies in the years 2004-2007. Participants included a mixture of British and non-British awardees, a mix of people still in academia and working outside academia and a mix of those working in the UK and abroad. Nine of the participants from the in depth interviews, a mixture of male and female, had children, but the majority did not.

About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust's breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests. www.wellcome.ac.uk<http://www.wellcome.ac.uk>

Autism Conference at UCSB Focuses on Intervention and Treatment

Lynn Koegel is clinical director of the
Koegel Autism Center and Broad Asperger Center. 
Credit: Sonia Fernandez

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Hundreds of autism experts from around the world gathered at UC Santa Barbara today for the 6th Annual International Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) Autism and Asperger's Conference.
Sponsored by UCSB's Koegel Autism Center, the two-day conference at Corwin Pavilion features scholars, educators, health care professionals, parents, and even grandparents discussing autism, Asperger's syndrome, and cutting-edge intervention and treatments strategies.

Bob Koegel, director of the Koegel Autism Center,
speaks during the morning session.Credit: George Foulsham

According to Lynn Kern Koegel, clinical director of the Koegel Autism Center and the Broad Asperger Center, and one of two keynote speakers, the main focus of this year's conference is PRT and the associated techniques for treating every aspect of autism spectrum disorder –– from first words, to socialization, to social conversation –– across all age levels, from infants to adults.

The conference began with Robert Koegel, director of the Koegel Autism Center and the second keynote speaker, providing an overview of PRT. Developed at UCSB, PRT is a protocol based on principles of positive motivation. Researchers have found that increasing children's participation in activities they enjoy can actually lessen the severity of autism spectrum disorder symptoms and open the door to more positive social interaction. Their work with infants was highlighted in the April issue of the Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions.
The idea, Robert Koegel said, is to focus on pivotal areas that cause widespread change in function, instead of treating "one behavior at a time, which would take forever." He also pointed out that while some 850 protocols have been identified for treating autism, only a handful –– including PRT –– have the recognized empirical evidence to support them.

Robert Koegel also discussed new studies being conducted by researchers at the center, including work with the California Department of Rehabilitation to help identify ways adults with autism can become successfully employed.

Following Robert Koegel's overview, Ty Vernon, director of the Koegel Autism Center Assessment Clinic, led a session that focused on the nuts and bolts of PRT, or as they say at the center, the ABC's –– antecedent, behavior, and consequence. Clinicians at the center use PRT to advance language acquisition in children with autism, although, as Vernon pointed out, the treatment protocol is effective with other behaviors as well.
The antecedent represents the task the child is asked to complete –– to say the word "doll," for example. The behavior is the child's attempt. It may consist simply of the sound "da," but it is a positive response. The consequence, then, is the parent or clinician handing the doll to the child.
The goal of the process, Vernon said, is to help these children "become independent, active agents in their environments."

The conference continued with Lynn Koegel discussing the importance of early intervention with PRT, noting a 95 percent success rate when they begin with nonverbal children under the age of 3. Between 3 and 5, the success rate drops to between 85 and 90 percent, she said, and after 5 it plummets to about 20 percent.
She also highlighted the importance of teaching children with autism how to initiate communication. "Autistic kids aren't creating their own learning opportunities," she said. They use language for requests and protests, she continued, but not for question functions.

A variety of workshops and breakout sessions are part of the conference, with other speakers, including Grace Gengoux, clinical assistant professor at Stanford University's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research Program; Areva Martin, an attorney and author who will speak on special education advocacy issues; and Amber Bharoocha Walz, a doctoral student at UCSB whose area of emphasis is special education disabilities and risk studies.

Additional information is available at http://www.education.ucsb.edu/autism.

CONTACT:
Andrea Estrada
(805) 893-4620
andrea.estrada@ia.ucsb.edu
George Foulsham(805) 893-3071
george.foulsham@ia.ucsb.edu
University of CaliforniaUC Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraCA 93106(805) 893-8000

German Aerospace Day: Harvesting energy, a life without traffic jams and a world record attempt

Thermochemical heat storage systems take in heat using an endothermic reaction and release it again through an exothermic reaction. They have a very high energy density and are ideal for long-term storage. In the CWS (Chemische Wärmespeicherung mittels reversibler Gas- und Feststoffreaktionen – chemical heat storage by means of reversible gas-and solid-state reactions) test facility in CeraStorE at DLR Cologne, such a storage system is being tested on a larger scale for the first time. Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0).

DLR energy, transport and materials research on German Aerospace Day

We all want energy to be available when we need it. During German Aerospace Day, energy researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) will demonstrate how innovative storage devices can be used to efficiently harness energy. DLR solar researchers will show the public how much power is available from the Sun, and how they can put this energy to use in solar power plants. When people move from A to B, they want to do so quickly and easily; DLR transport researchers will show how this could be achieved in future, perhaps with fewer traffic jams. DLR materials scientists have their sights set on using 22 September to demonstrate how a 15-ton truck can remain suspended in the air for over an hour, bonded by an adhesive surface no larger than credit card. Visitors can also get to know ultra-lightweight and extremely stable materials at the Institute of Materials Research.

How are ultra-light aerogels made? In their 10-minute 'Science Slam' entitled 'Resorcin-Formaldehyd-Aerogele kochen(d) leicht gemacht' (A simple guide to cooking (up) Resorcinol-Formaldehyde-Aerogels), two materials scientists show how it is done. Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0).

World record attempt – an adhesive surface no larger than a credit card holds a truck suspended in the air

Scheduled for 13:00 on German Aerospace Day, the DLR material scientists will attempt to set a new world record: a technique developed at DLR will be used to bond two steel bolts roughly the same size as a credit card (seven centimetre diameter). Then a 15-ton truck will be kept suspended in thin air, hanging from a mobile crane for an over an hour, held in place by nothing other than these adhesive surfaces.

Electricity from heat

Thermoelectric materials have the ability to convert heat directly into electricity, without any moving parts. Scientists from the Institute of Materials Research are working on more efficient methods of utilising these substances. On German Aerospace Day, they will show how a thermoelectric generator can power a model railway with no more than the heat from one candle. There is also a reverse effect in which thermoelectric elements pump heat to different locations and hence regulate their temperature. Visitors will be able to feel this coldness in a test system.

A 57 square metre mirror collects sunlight and directs it towards the facetted mirrors (left in the picture). These mirrors concentrate the incoming radiation up to around 5200 times and direct it to the research laboratory of the Cologne solar furnace (the beam of light can be seen on the right of the image). Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0).

Ultra-light and extremely stable – aerogels

Aerogels are extremely light, solid substances, generally silicates, which consist of up to 98 per cent air contained within pores in their structure. Combining them with concrete or other substances, material researchers have succeeded in using aerogels to produce extremely stable materials that provide outstanding insulation. The scientists working at the Institute of Material Research premises will be showing how light and versatile these materials are. As part of the lecture programme in the main DLR auditorium, two researchers will use the ‘Science Slam’ to demonstrate how aerogels are manufactured. This 10-minute science show with the title 'Resorcin-Formaldehyd-Aerogele kochen(d) leicht gemacht' (A simple guide to cooking (up) Resorcinol-Formaldehyde-Aerogels) promises to be funny and informative.

Ideal long-term storage device with high energy density in CeraStorE

Cooked and buttered, the noodles make their way from the stove to the table – and the heat remaining in the hotplate leaks away unused. Something similar to this happens in a whole range of industrial processes. To ensure that this thermal energy is not lost and is instead collected and re-used, DLR energy researchers are developing intelligent storage systems that capture thermal energy and put it back to work precisely where it is needed. Visitors to CeraStorE – the competency centre for ceramic materials and thermal storage technologies – on German Aerospace Day will have the opportunity to inspect a thermo-chemical storage system that uses lime to convert thermal energy into chemical energy. What makes the lime storage system so special? The chemical reaction enables it to absorb large quantities of thermal energy per cubic metre. It is also an ideal long-term storage unit that holds back from releasing the energy it saves until water vapour is introduced. As part of a trial demonstration, the scientists use a thermal-imaging camera to visualise the heat energy released in this kind of reaction. In addition to the lime storage system, the DLR Institute of Technical Thermodynamics will present a range of other storage materials and technologies, among them high-temperature thermal storage units for use in existing gas and steam power plants, solar and compressed air power plants and also in combined heat and power plants, allowing consumers to use energy storage to access electricity or heat whenever needed.

Ceramic fibre composite materials are as durable as metallic materials, but they can withstand significantly higher temperatures and are far lighter. Among other things they are intended for use in gas turbine combustion chambers, where they allow a further increase in temperatures inside the combustion chamber and a reduction in the volume of air needed for cooling. Visitors to the CeraStorE building will have an opportunity to inspect the systems used to produce these materials.

How sunlight gets to the power plant

How does a solar power plant work? Visitors to the DLR Institute of Solar Research will find all their questions answered. Scientists here are working on large-scale solar power plants that use mirrors to harness sunlight, focusing it on one point or a linear axis. The thermal energy this produces – with temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius – is exploited to convert water into steam to drive a turbine. Scientists use an approximately 60 square metre mirror at the DLR solar furnace in Cologne to beam sunlight onto an area of just 10 by 10 centimetres. Although the solar power concentrated in this way creates temperatures that could easily melt through a bank vault, the researchers exploit this energy to develop methods of producing hydrogen, among other things. The scientists will also use a bowl-shaped mirror to demonstrate the immense power of sunlight by melting coins – assuming that the Sun is shining.

One of the main tasks for the DLR solar researchers is to test the quality of these huge mirrors before they are used in solar power plants. The researchers will use German Aerospace Day to provide a glimpse behind the scenes of this work. The show will feature parabolic mirrors measuring up to six metres, deployed to harness sunlight in solar power plants in Spain, the United States, Asia and North Africa, to name but a few.

Reducing traffic congestion

Whether travelling by road, rail or air, the aim is to get from A to B as quickly, safely and inexpensively as possible, without harming people or the environment. Transport researchers at DLR are working on making this vision come true. At German Aerospace Day, Peter Wagner will speak on traffic jams can be prevented. Solutions to this problem will include driving assistance systems and satellite images to help improve traffic management. Discover more about the solutions this field of research has to offer at 15:00 in the main auditorium of the DLR Casino.

Visitors to the DLR Institute of Transportation Systems stand (located between the Institute of Aerospace Medicine and the :envihab research facility) will be able to play a 'traffic light game' to find out first hand just how complex a task it is to control traffic lights at one single junction. The aim of this computer simulation is to manage the traffic lights at the junction in such a way that vehicles get through with minimal fuel consumption. An 'all-time best' list will record the top scores among visitors.

German Aerospace Day 2013:
http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10689/


Contacts

Dorothee Buerkle
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Tel.: +49 2203 601-3492
Fax: +49 2203 601-3249
mailto:Dorothee.Buerkle@dlr.de 

Atlas of the asteroid Vesta is online

Overview of the asteroid Vesta.
 Scientists from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have created an atlas of Vesta from about 10,000 individual images of the asteroid. The camera orbited the asteroid on board NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

Colour-coded map of Vesta.
The camera on board the Dawn spacecraft imaged the asteroid Vesta from an altitude of 210 kilometres. Planetary researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) processed this data to create maps and elevation models. This map employs colour-coding to depict the high and low points of the south polar region.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.

On 11 May 2011, the camera on board the Dawn spacecraft acquired its first picture of the asteroid Vesta. Despite its diameter of 530 kilometres, this heavenly body appeared as no more than a white dot in the image – at that time, the spacecraft was still 975,000 kilometres away from its destination. But this changed significantly during the mission; after its arrival, the craft eventually orbited the irregularly shaped asteroid at an altitude of just 210 kilometres and went on to acquire thousands of images. The outcome of this complex mission was the creation of an atlas of the asteroid Vesta, which is now available to the public online. "Assemble this atlas from so many images was a laborious task," said Thomas Roatsch from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), where the data obtained during the mission was processed to create maps and elevation models.

Asteroid Vesta proved to be something of a treasure trove for planetary researchers. Three superimposed craters quickly acquired the nickname 'Snowman'. Impact craters of a kind never seen before, valleys, canyons and a mountain three times the height of Mount Everest – this asteroid exhibits a vast diversity of geological formations and has astonished scientists. "We did not expect such complex geology. The topography alone, with altitude differences of up to 20 kilometres, indicates tremendous dynamism in the surface shaping, as does the variety and diversity of the impact craters, valleys and canyons that extend across Vesta and the great differences in brightness of the surface material," said Ralf Jaumann from the DLR Institute of Planetary Research.

Extreme terrain forms in a small area

Gradually, this flood of data from the camera was transformed into an atlas of Vesta in which, very much in keeping with more familiar regional maps on Earth, one centimetre equates to roughly two kilometres on the surface of the asteroid. About 10,000 individual images were used for the atlas, creating the complete work from a mosaic. "For every page of the map in this series, we have used about 400 images from the camera," explained planetary researcher Roatsch, who presented the atlas at the European Planetary Society Congress (EPSC) in London. "The atlas shows just how extreme the terrain is on what is a rather small celestial body. For example, on the map page showing the south pole of Vesta, you can see the Severina Crater, which is 18 kilometres deep, while just 100 kilometres away, a mountain peak rises to a height of seven kilometres."

Overall View of Vesta showing the different map regions.
Credit: DLR.

The Dawn spacecraft has since recommenced its journey through space. In 2015, it will reach the asteroid Ceres, its second mission objective, which is currently over 46 million kilometres away. While Vesta is a 'dry' asteroid with only a small amount of water ice, planetary researchers are expecting Ceres to be a 'wet' asteroid. Nevertheless, both will give researchers an insight into the earliest period in the life of the Solar System because their accretion into planets was prevented by large gravitational perturbations by Jupiter.

The mission

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, which is a division of the California Institute of Technology, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington D.C. The University of California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The camera system on the spacecraft was developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin and the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering in Braunschweig. The Framing Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.

Contacts

Manuela Braun
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Corporate Communications
Editor, Human Space Flight, 
Space Science, Engineering
Tel.: +49 2203 601-3882
Fax: +49 2203 601-3249
mailto:Manuela.Braun@dlr.de 

Prof.Dr. Ralf Jaumann
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Institute of Planetary Research 
Planetary Geology
Tel.: +49 30 67055-400
Fax: +49 30 67055-402
mailto:Ralf.Jaumann@dlr.de  

Dr Thomas Roatsch
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Institute of Planetary Research
Tel.: +49 30 67055-339
Fax: +49 30 67055-402
mailto:Thomas.Roatsch@dlr.de