Projects
European Union funded projects (EU FP 7):
FIELD_AC (Fluxes, Interactions and Environment at the Land-Ocean Boundary. Downscaling, Assimilation and Coupling). The FIELD_AC project aims at providing an improved operational service for coastal areas and to generate added value for shelf and regional scale predictions from GMES Marine Core Services. The role of local data assimilation will be analysed together with advanced error metrics to provide a reliable service that can be transferred to public and private parties. Areas of interest are Catalan coast, Gulf of Venice, Liverpool Bay and the German Bight. FIELD_AC will bridge the gap from shelf/regional predictions to the local (river mouth or harbour/beach scales) simulations required by the coastal zone public and private sectors alike. Such improvements (services and expertise) will require the advancement of the present state of the art.
MyOcean is an EU-FP7 funded large scale integrating project. My Ocean uses the existing marine service pre-operational capabilities with the aim to develop prototype operations, science based management and coordination. One goal is to provide GMES users with continuous access to the GMES service products, as well as the interfaces necessary to benefit from research and development activities. HZG will be coordinating Science and Technology evolution of MyOcean 2, and be mostly involved in numerical modelling and data assimilation, as well as activities in the frame of Ocean Colour TAC (Thematic Assembly Centre) and Baltic and Black Sea activities in the frame of corresponding MFCs (Monitoring and Forecasting Centres).
MyWave aims at improving the marine GMES services by the introduction of ocean waves. The main objective is to substantially improve both the ocean wave and ocean-circulation model products through the development of state of the art coupled atmosphere-wave-ocean model systems. This includes new methodologies for ocean wave physics, for the coupling methodology between waves, ocean and atmosphere and new data assimilation techniques enhancing the use of satellite data in coastal areas. The main tasks of IfK/HZG are to combine and document all developments into a standard new model version of WAM and to provide the required infrastructure for testing. The world-wide dissemination of the final new model is also the responsibility of HZG.
Other Projects:
BMBF funded Project
BALTICWAY (“The potential of currents of environmental management of the Baltic Sea maritime industry”) aims to a substantial decrease of industry-induced remote environmental risks (e.g. ship-caused pollution that frequently affects vulnerable areas far from the accident site) in terms of minimizing consequences of potential accidents. The approach is based on a smart use of the existence of statistically heterogeneous semi-persistent current patterns. These patterns make the probability of transport of dangerous substances or undesired items highly variable. The existence and location of areas of reduced risk will be established through the use of massive numerical simulations, the result of which will be verified by specifically designed experiments.
BONUS-BMBF funded.
EOS Network (Integrated Earth Observation System)
The Helmholtz-EOS Network has taken on the task of looking at System Earth – which is composed of the lithosphere, pedosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere and biosphere – and analyzing how it functions globally as well as regionally. It is investigating the effects of human intervention in the natural equilibria and processes of this highly complex system.
The network EOS (Earth Observation System) brings together for this purpose the geoscientific competence of key research centers: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Together, these six Helmholtz Centers have available a unique diversity of infrastructure which includes, besides research ships and aircraft, the latest satellite sensors and mainframe computers. Seven research topics – from studying and analyzing atmospheric, hydrological and ecological systems and processes to monitoring individual dangers and risks in a changing environment to developing new earth observation methodologies – comprise the framework for subjects addressed by the research association. One important research focus is motivated by the fact that the large scale changes can not be estimated based on point-wise observations alone. The workpackage „Clobal change and processes in the open and coastal ocean“ coordinated by HZG addresses the changes in the marine environment with the help of remote sensing and in situ techniques in combination with numerical modelling.
European Union funded projects (accomplished):
- YEOS (Yellow Sea Observation, Forecasting and Information System): YEOS is an EU FP6 Specific Supported Action, which aims at technical transfer and international cooperation with developing countries, as a part of EU contribution to GEOSS. The goal of YEOS is to strengthen the GOESS cooperation between EU and other key GEOSS players, by demonstrating benefits and building up confidence through a solid cooperation in national level (i.e., EU-States-China-South Korea) and regional level (i.e., BOOS - Yellow Sea OOS).
- Advanced decision support system for ship design, operation and training (ADOPT): The project will focus on optimizing safety by development of a system that senses the environment for actual situation data, and predicting the ship motions accordingly, thereby ensuring optimal operational performance, relying on computer based decision support tool creating an interface to be used in ship operation, training and design.
- Design, operation and regulation for safety (SAFEDOR): SAFEDOR undertakes to deliver the foundation for Europe to sustain world-leadership on safety-critical and knowledge-intensive ships, services, products, equipment and related software and to install systematic innovation in ship design and operation by modernizing the maritime regulatory system.
- Hindcast of Dynamic Processes of the Ocean and Coastal Areas of Europe (HIPOCAS): Retrieval of a 40-year hindcast of wind, wave, sea-level and current climatology for European waters and coastal seas for application in coastal and environmental decision processes.
SEAROUTES: Advanced decision support for shiprouting based on full-scale ship-specific Responses as well as improved sea and weather forecasts including synoptic, high precision and realtime satellite data.
Maximum Waves (MaxWave): Main objectives are the investigation of properties and forecasting abilities of low frequency wave fields, extreme individual waves and wave groups as well as derivation of new design criteria considering the impact of rogue waves on ships and offshore constructions (coordinator).
European Radar Ocean Sensing (EuroRose) [ Reports available in PDF ]: Development of a transportable methodology for monitoring and forecasting winds, waves, water level and currents in limited areas (coordinator).
Measurement and use of Directional Spectra of Ocean Waves (COST714): Development of methods for directional wave spectra retrieval from remote sensing and directional wave spectra for modeling application. Comparison of different wave measuring techniques.
Preparation and integration of analysis tools towards operational forecast of nutrients in estuaries of European rivers (PIONEER): Development of techniques for the day-to-day monitoring, analysis and short-term prediction of nutrient and related suspended matter distributions in estuaries.
Pre-operational Modeling in the Seas of Europe Sylt-Rømø (PROMISE): Develop a framework to optimize the application of existing pre-operational dynamical models of the North Sea towards the present focus of quantifying the rates and scales of exchange of sediment between the coast and the near-shore zone.
Waves and Storms in the North Atlantic (WASA): Investigation of hypotheses of a worsening storm and wave climate in the Northeast Atlantic and its adjacent seas in the present century (coordinator).
NEPTUN: An integrated approach for determining North West European coastal extremes.
Wadden Sea Project (WASP): Development and testing of combined models of wind, waves, currents, sediment and ecosystem (coordinator).
Other Projects (accomplished):
- Climate Change, wind-wave interaction and anthropogenic impact on
coastal processes (CliWaCoas). Investigation of risks that may develop
in the coastal regions under accepted scenarios of possible climate
change and/or human activity. Scientific and technological cooperation
project with TECHNION in Israel. BMBF funded.
- MOSES, Modelling of the mid-term wave climate within the German North Sea coastal area. BMBF funded.
- German Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS). Development
of a Tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean. Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht´s part is
to model the Tsunami wave propagation, transformation and run-up in
selected coastal areas. BMBF funded.
- Investigation of extratropical cyclones using passive and active microwave radars (EXTROP):
The aim of the Virtual Institute is to improve the predictability of
cyclones in the northern Atlantic using various remote sensing
techniques. HGF funded.
- SAR Ocean Wind, Waves and Currents (SOWWC):
Develop and validate processing methods for ocean wind, waves and
current retrieval from ENVISAT ASAR data with a view to their rapid
incorporation into operational products. ESA funded.
- Use of environmental data for ship design and safety in collaboration with the Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG, Germany. BMBF funded.
ODERHAFF: Hydrodynamics and transports in tideless coastal waters.
ODERFLUT: Hochwasser-Simulation im Einzugsgebiet der Oder mit gekoppeltem Modellsystem (coordinator).
A New Perspective of the Ocean (ENVOC): The instruments of the European satellite ENVISAT will be used for various tasks including improvement of wind, wave and sea ice measurements as well as water constituent, hydrobiological and geochemical monitoring (consortium).
Spatial Resolution of Marine Parameters with ERS-SAR Images (SARPAK): Investigation of the spatial Resolution of marine meteorological and marine biological parameter fields in coastal areas with ERS-SAR images (coordinator) .
Environmental assessment study for the deepening of the Elbe river (consortium).
Baltic Sea hindcast for reconstruction of the breakwater and entrance of Warnemünde harbor, Rostock, Germany. On behalf of the Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW), Germany.
40 year hindcast of the southern North Sea for the Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW), Germany.
Investigation of sea state near to the coast and the estuaries of the German Bight for the Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW), Germany.
Measurement and modeling of ocean wave spectra for the calibration and validation phase of the European remote sensing satellite ERS-1.
Hindcast study and extreme value analysis of 132 storms in the Southern North Sea for a consortium of 6 oil companies.
North European Storm Study (NESS): A hindcast study to establish extreme value statistics of winds, waves and currents for the North European shelf areas (consortium).
SWAM: Comparison of several deep-water wave models (consortium).
SWIM: Comparison of several shallow water wave models (consortium).
