Research Themes of Department Coastal Oceanographic Measurement System (KOK)
The Primary Framework of our activities is the research Program "Polar regions and Coasts in a changing Earth System" (PACES) That is part of the research field "Earth and Environment" of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HGF). We principally involved in the PACES topic 2: Coastal Change:
WP4: Observation and information for coastal management
Mission: We develop and integrate observation, modelling and information processing methods for monitoring the coastal zone and provide knowledge for ists management.
PACES - Polar regions and Coasts in a changing Earth System
Atlas of Advanced Monitoring Techniques
(Copyright: 2008, Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone, Core project of IGBP and IHDP)
Exchange Processes between Wadden Sea and German Bight
Pole Accumer Balje
For more than ten years, the KOK department is conducting long-term measurements in the tidal flat areas of the German Bight, utilising observation poles, bottom-mounted systems, and waverider buoys. The objective of these activities is to test new data acquisition systems and data transmission tools. The collected time series are analysed in terms of exchange processes between the tidal flat areas and the German Bight. The buoys measure only parameters related to the sea state, while the bottom-mounted systems acquire oceanographic state variables like pressure, temperature, conductivity, velocity, and turbidity. in addition on the poles are registered fluorescence, photosynthetic active radiation, pH-value, oxygen and atmospheric parameteres like air pressure, temperature, wind speed, humidity, irradiation, and precipitation.
COSYNA - Coastal Observing System for Northern and Arctic Seas
Investigations of Horizontal and Vertical Representativity of Routine Observations in the German Bight
Scan Fish MKII
In the framework of the „Integrated Coastal Observation Network“ ICON for the North Sea and the adjacent Wadden Sea, basic observational items such as horizontal and vertical representativity or required spatio - temporal density will be covered. To this purpose, a towed undulating vehicle system, the Scanfish MK II (EIVA), designed for collecting profile data of the water column in oceanographic, environmental monitoring and bathymetric applications will be adopted from autumn 2008 on. It is equipped with CTD sensors, optical devices to study the distribution and content of phytoplankton and suspended solids. Scientific studies will comprise the understanding of the position of the chlorophyll maximum in the German Bight or the relevance of the vertical density distributions for the data assimilation in regional operational observation systems.
Mapping of Seabed Habitats with Geoacoustic Tools
Habitat Map
Mapping of endangered seafloor habitats is an important task with the increasing use of the nearshore seas. Only multibeam echosounding or sidescan sonar systems allow to survey the deeper parts of the open sea in high resolution. Processing of sound wave travel times creates a detailed topography of the seafloor, the processing of the backscattering strength of the sound signals allows conclusions on the seafloor composition and coverage. Through optical or computer-based statistical analysis of such a seafloor backscatter map, areas of different lithologies or floral or faunal coverage can be distinguished. The identification of the different habitats has to be done by ground-truthing through sampling or video observations.
WIMO - Wissenschaftliche Monitoringkonzepte für die Deutsche Bucht
Long-term Studies of Coastal Morphodynamical Processes Using Multibeam Technology
Seabed Mapping
Multibeam echosounding systems allow the complete reconstruction of seabed bathymetries in shallow waters with an accuracy and precision in the order of less than a decimeter. Repeated surveys of the same area yield the propagation of undersea dunes on scales ranging from meters to hundreds of meters. Research items in the KOK division comprise the many-year rearrangement of dumped material in front of the German Baltic coast and the sand transport at the northern part of the island of Sylt in the German Bight. Here, multibeam observations with their inherent high precision and resolution represent complementary baseline data for continuous scans from a land-based wave radar operated by the KOR division.
