page 1

VON STORCH Hans

Institute for Coastal Research, GKSS Research Center

Germany

Overview – Institut for Coastal

Research

page 2

GKSS is a member of the Hermann von Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres

Institute for Coastal Research@GKSS

Hans von Storch, director

page 3

Institute for Coastal Researchof GKSS Research Center

Key research questions addressed by the GKSS coastal research program are

• How is global change affecting the coastal system?

• What is the present state and present change of the coastal zone?

• How can we reliably and cost-effectively monitor coastal processes?

page 4

Two key projects• ICON / COSYNA – development of a pre-

operational system for monitoring coastal seas. (remote sensing, ferry box, radar hydrograph; data assimilation)

• CoastDat – long term regional data sets of sub-daily data of winds, waves, water levels, currents and other variables – of the past decades and for possible futures states (scenarios). (changing statistics of storms, waves, storm surges)

Additional other important but somewhat smaller projects

page 5

Reference Points• deployed at research platforms (FINO 1, 3) and

planned wind energy turbines• use of power supply and telecommunication• implement a central node to plug in

• common package of sensors (oceanography, meteorology, FerryBox for water quality & biology)

• particle and plankton dynamics• lander systems to probe water/sediment

boundary• flux measurements of the air/sea boundary

Transects• Cross-shore using autonomous underwater

vehicles (AUV, Glider)• Southern North Sea using ships of opportunity

(extended FerryBox)• For specific studies research vessels

Construction period: 2009 - 2012

Total costs: 9.000 T€

page 6

Long-term, high-resolution reconstuctions (50 years) of present and recent developments of weather related phenomena in coastal regions as well as scenarios of future developments (100 years) Northeast Atlantic and northern Europe “Standard” model systems (“frozen”) Assessment of changes in storms, ocean waves, storm surges, currents and regional transport of anthropogenic substances. Data freely available.

Applications many authorities with responsibilities for different aspects of the German coasts economic applications by engineering companies (off-shore wind potentials and risks) and shipbuilding companyPublic information

www.coastdat.de

page 7

Weisse, R., H. von Storch, U. Callies, A. Chrastansky, F. Feser, I. Grabemann, H. Günther, A. Plüss, T. Stoye, J. Tellkamp, J. Winterfeldt and K. Woth, 2009:

Regional meteo-marine reanalyses and climate change projections: Results for Northern Europe and potentials for coastal and offshore applications.

Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. 90: 849-860

(open access)

page 8

Other issues- Remote sensing of coastal bathymetry

- Pathways and deposition of substances (oil pollution, BaP, nutrients)

- Coastal zone management

- New ecosystem modelling approaches

- Millennial climate variability modelling

page 9

Observational systems• Stand alone systems: wave rider buoys, wave radar and pole systems• Operational measuring systems on board of ships (FerryBox)• Measures and systems for remote sensing

Research vessels “Ludwig Prandtl” and “Storch”Laboratories equipped with: GC-MSD, LC-MS/MS, GC-MS/MS …

DKRZ (German Climate Computing Centre)

Various environmental system models: • regional atmospheric models CLM and REMO • hydrodynamic model TRIM• wave models HYPA-S, k-model, WAM• atmospheric transport and transformation model CMAQ

BALTEX Secretariat

Climate Office LOICZ - IPO

Infrastructure of Institute for Coastal Research

page 10

Institute for Coastal Research@GKSS : part of North German coastal science network

DKRZ

climate, physics coastal

applications

Climate, ecosystems,monitoring

page 11

Education: PhD programmes• with U Hamburg and Kiel• “graduate schools”, such as IMPRS and CLISAP• 4 Chinese PhD students at this time,

with 2 through China Scholarship Council (CSC) program:- Xia Lan, tracking of cyclones, CSC- Chen Fei, polar lows in the N Pac, CSC- He Yunchang, modeling and prediction of variation in oxygen depletion - Xi Lu, identification areas of reduced risk of shiprouting with use high-resolution coupled circulation and wave models

• 4. call for proposals in the CSC-HGF exchange program

page 12