Objectives of the COSYNA-Project
The principal goal of the knowledge-induced investment is the construction of a long-term observatory for the German part of the North Sea. Elements of the observatory should also be deployed as prototype modules in arctic coastal waters.
COSYNA is expected to strengthen and bundle expertise and infrastructural equipment existing at the two Helmholtz Association centres GKSS and AWI with expertise available within the consortium of German marine research (KDM) in order to create a centrally managed, operational, large-scale monitoring and modelling system.
By providing knowledge as well as hardware, the system will, in addition, enable future research projects pursued by individual partners within the consortium. In cooperation and agreement with the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), GKSS seeks to pinpoint the German role in the international development of marine monitoring and long-term observational strategies. As a nationally funded project COSYNA is aimed to link to European partners
COSYNA is expected to strengthen and bundle expertise and infrastructural equipment existing at the two Helmholtz Association centres GKSS and AWI with expertise available within the consortium of German marine research (KDM) in order to create a centrally managed, operational, large-scale monitoring and modelling system.
By providing knowledge as well as hardware, the system will, in addition, enable future research projects pursued by individual partners within the consortium. In cooperation and agreement with the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), GKSS seeks to pinpoint the German role in the international development of marine monitoring and long-term observational strategies. As a nationally funded project COSYNA is aimed to link to European partners
With the new device, GKSS and its partner consortium aims at a synoptic view of the southern North Sea. COSYNA will, in particular, significantly enhance our forecast capabilities by reducing large uncertainties within state-of-the-art model. The integrated system is a novel instrument for marine and climate research and will facilitate to address basic questions formulated in the HGF research topic Earth and Environment like how the physics, biogeochemistry and ecology of coastal seas will evolve in near or longer-term future (operational forecasts and scenarios).
The information produced by COSYNA will also significantly contribute to specific questions of science and management such as the unknown
ecosystem response to ocean warming and acidification or the sensitivity of coastal morphology to transport of sediments and sea level rise. Other issues comprise the interaction of wave climate to sediment dynamics or matter exchange between ocean and atmosphere. Parameters monitored by the system should therefore cover a wide range of interconnected process areas including water and atmospheric physics, sediment transport, geochemistry and biology. Their selection reflects low maintenance efforts for sensors and the efficiency for constraining models, in particular with respect to model budgets of energy, sediments and of key biogeochemical elements like carbon or nitrogen. This task also implies a wide vertical
coverage of the system ranging from the benthic boundary layer, through the water column to the water-air interface.
COSYNA represents a unique device with a new quality of marine monitoring. As a spatially distributed instrument with modern technologies installed at selected fixed or mobile platforms it will provide the necessary coverage to characterize highly dynamic, interconnected and heterogeneous environments. Its operational mode will be maintained over a long-term period. For reaching this goal, COSYNA will receive substantial support from individual KDM members and intensively use platforms-of-opportunities like North Sea ferries and offshore wind farms. This participation to externally financed infrastructure and maintenance logistics would enable a cost effective construction and operation of the system.
Thus, maritime exploitation like offshore wind energy conversion will not only be an object of research, but also a fundamental prerequisite for long-term observations. COSYNA will have a central data centre at GKSS with regional sub-nodes at partner institutes. Up-to-date information technology for processing of data, their analysis and assimilation into models is an integral part of the system. By operational data assimilation and model based prognosis of future developments COSYNA will support decisions on user conflicts and suggest potential alternative solutions and will provide a number of products such as regularly released maps for source and sinks of sediments or CO2.
By realizing a spatially distributed but highly coherent instrument like COSYNA we understand shelf seas as unities, like e.g. formulated by the concept of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). The multi-sensor approach proposed here integrates the four disciplines physical oceanography, geology (sediment- and morphodynamics), biogeochemistry (especially of climate relevant compounds), and biological oceanography, including marine and coastal ecology. Long-term experience shows that specific questions can generally only be answered through a cross section of the above-mentioned disciplines. This is due to the numerous strong interactions within complex systems such as shelf and coastal seas. Multifactorial causes are therefore common, and hardly ever-simple one-to-one relationships of cause and effect occur. The capability to observe in a synoptic manner changes in the North Sea, Wadden Sea and selected arctic coastal seas, and to assess natural and anthropogenic changes in these areas, requires a large scale facility that challenges our scientific, technical and management abilities.
The information produced by COSYNA will also significantly contribute to specific questions of science and management such as the unknown
ecosystem response to ocean warming and acidification or the sensitivity of coastal morphology to transport of sediments and sea level rise. Other issues comprise the interaction of wave climate to sediment dynamics or matter exchange between ocean and atmosphere. Parameters monitored by the system should therefore cover a wide range of interconnected process areas including water and atmospheric physics, sediment transport, geochemistry and biology. Their selection reflects low maintenance efforts for sensors and the efficiency for constraining models, in particular with respect to model budgets of energy, sediments and of key biogeochemical elements like carbon or nitrogen. This task also implies a wide vertical
coverage of the system ranging from the benthic boundary layer, through the water column to the water-air interface.
COSYNA represents a unique device with a new quality of marine monitoring. As a spatially distributed instrument with modern technologies installed at selected fixed or mobile platforms it will provide the necessary coverage to characterize highly dynamic, interconnected and heterogeneous environments. Its operational mode will be maintained over a long-term period. For reaching this goal, COSYNA will receive substantial support from individual KDM members and intensively use platforms-of-opportunities like North Sea ferries and offshore wind farms. This participation to externally financed infrastructure and maintenance logistics would enable a cost effective construction and operation of the system.
Thus, maritime exploitation like offshore wind energy conversion will not only be an object of research, but also a fundamental prerequisite for long-term observations. COSYNA will have a central data centre at GKSS with regional sub-nodes at partner institutes. Up-to-date information technology for processing of data, their analysis and assimilation into models is an integral part of the system. By operational data assimilation and model based prognosis of future developments COSYNA will support decisions on user conflicts and suggest potential alternative solutions and will provide a number of products such as regularly released maps for source and sinks of sediments or CO2.
By realizing a spatially distributed but highly coherent instrument like COSYNA we understand shelf seas as unities, like e.g. formulated by the concept of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). The multi-sensor approach proposed here integrates the four disciplines physical oceanography, geology (sediment- and morphodynamics), biogeochemistry (especially of climate relevant compounds), and biological oceanography, including marine and coastal ecology. Long-term experience shows that specific questions can generally only be answered through a cross section of the above-mentioned disciplines. This is due to the numerous strong interactions within complex systems such as shelf and coastal seas. Multifactorial causes are therefore common, and hardly ever-simple one-to-one relationships of cause and effect occur. The capability to observe in a synoptic manner changes in the North Sea, Wadden Sea and selected arctic coastal seas, and to assess natural and anthropogenic changes in these areas, requires a large scale facility that challenges our scientific, technical and management abilities.
