Marine Observing Systems
Collecting data from the ocean interior is both challenging and exciting.
Exciting, because it is one of the places on earth we know the least about, whether it is the response of the oceanic environment to the changing climate or the whereabouts and numbers of the great whales.
Challenging, because high ambient pressures, a highly corrosive environment, the lack of an electricity grid and the impossibility of underwater radio communication demand new ideas and high-tech approaches for in-situ instrumentation.
This group aims at developing and employing new observational instruments to collect and analyze marine data urgently needed to address pressing scientific questions. Owing to the slow-going nature of changes in the ocean, special emphasis is thereby laid on the development and use of long-term observational systems.
Our studies are arranged in two themes clustering around the following scientific questions:
- what is the ocean’s response to climate change on time scales of years to decades?
for more information see: Physical Oceanography
- what is the impact of anthropogenic noise on the marine fauna, whales in particular?
for more information see: Ocean Acoustics
These questions are being addressed through a number of projects, which are funded by the BIS (1), the BMBF (2) and the EU (3) and, last not least, the AWI. Further details of the projects may be accessed through the links above.
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(1) Bremerhavener Gesellschaft für Investitionsförderung und Stadtentwicklung mbH
(2) Federal Ministry of Education and Research
(3) European Union, 6th Framework Programme
