GKSS Forschungszentrum, 2012-02-11
http://www.gkss.de/institute/coastal_research/structure/operational_systems/KOK/projects/ICON/006740/index_0006740.html

Executive Summary

Shelf and arctic seas host unique ecosystems, provide numerous services to the human society and mediate important matter fluxes, which have significant impacts on regional water quality as well as global climate. In turn, shelf and arctic seas experience drastic transformations in response to anthropogenic activities and global change. Scientists, managing authorities, maritime industry and, in part, the public strongly demand for reliable scenarios of those changes. The primordial quest is how the physics, biogeochemistry and ecology of coastal seas will evolve in future. This challenging task can only be addressed by enhanced modelling capabilities. However, given the still huge uncertainty within the forecasts of state-of-the-art models, these have to be constrained by data. Monitoring is therefore mandatory but, in order to effectively improve our forecast ability, has to be continuous in time and space and has to cover relevant parameters, which crosscut different process areas.

COSYNA represents a unique device with a new quality of marine monitoring. As a spatially distributed instrument it will provide the necessary coverage to characterize highly dynamic, interconnected and heterogeneous environments. Its operational mode maintained over a longterm period will enable both, short-term forecast as well as trend scenarios. Data processing, analysis and assimilation into models are, thus, an integral part of the system. By providing infrastructures as well as various information products, COSYNA will have immediate benefits for coastal management and for marine science in Germany and Europe. The device is open for research institutes in Germany, which already take significant responsibilities in setting-up and maintaining individual components. However, COSYNA will also have a trans-boundary dimension already in its early development phase, aiming to support the establishment of a northwestern European system.


The basis of COSYNA is a common package of sensors at fixed and mobile platforms. Their position is optimized to cover strong recurring gradients across and along the residual main
coastal current in the German Bight. Elements of the systems will also be tested in Arctic waters. Most of the North Sea platforms are either already in operation or will be built by offshore industry partners in near future. A new platform directly offshore the East Frisian Wadden Sea is part of the investment. Apart from three near-coast piles, sensor units will be installed on offshore platforms within windfarms, on ships-of–opportunity and on autonomous underwater vehicles. Key physical, sedimentary, geochemical and biological parameters will be monitored at high temporal resolution in the water column and at the upper and lower boundary layers. At selected sites, COSYNA includes new sensors for measuring profiles and fluxes at the water-atmosphere and at the sediment-water interface. Investments for hard- and software (data centre) are essential for the integrated monitoring and modelling system since they enable the processing of information, its storage, analysis, visualisation, assimilation into models, and communication of results.

 

COSYNA will complement the HGF Infrastructure of the Earth and Environment Program PACES (Polar and Coastal Changes in the Earth System) and will strengthen our expertise in the internationally growing field of operational oceanography, both in the coastal North Sea and in Arctic waters. COSYNA allows addressing burning current questions of science and management such as the ongoing response to ocean warming and acidification or the evolution of coastal morphological due to transport of sediments. And alike other long-term observatories its major value will become most evident in the forthcoming decades.