Von der Nordsee lernen

Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft tüfteln an Warnsystemen - Förderbescheid über 1.6 Millionen Euro für Projektgruppe.

Kiel, Germany. For a year, the topic of tsunamis has made waves. Warning systems are being requested. What are their capabilities? Can they only provide tsunami warnings, or are the more possibilities? Enterprises and research institutes in Schleswig-Holstein address this question. Their goal: A system, which can monitor the Baltic Sea.

Many scenarios can be presented, such as: a rescue cruiser searching for people lost overboard. Where might the current bring them? Until now, the searchers could not request regional data. Consider the Küstenschutz (Coastal Protection Authority), which wants to know the stress levels on dikes. There are the various border control agencies. The power companies with offshore windmills would like information about expected bird migrations or sedimentary shifts. Surfers want to know where the best waves are forming. All these applications and there is still no comprehensive information. These problems could be resolved by one system, developed as a tsunami warning system.

“We can do this with the knowledge available in this state”, says Lüder Hogrefe, CEO of Raytheon Anschütz. Now industry and science combine their abilities. By 2007, as part of the “Ocean Monitoring System”, various components (comprised of various components, including radar as well as floating & sea-bed sensors) should be installed, expanded, and synchronized. The expectation is a capable of providing reliable data about weather and environment, as well as long-term information about currents and sediment movement. Examples of these potential applications (and of markets) can be found in Asia.

Dietrich Austermann, Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister for Science and Finance, extended funding in the amount of 1.6 million Euros to this project yesterday. The other 1.6 million, of the necessary 3.2 million Euros, should be financed by the State Initiative “Zukunft Meer” (“Future:Sea”) through Schleswig-Holstein financial pools. The money will go to develop new sensors, as well as methods of data evaluation and of publishing the evaluated information. Raytheon Anschütz leads the project, which includes 4H-Jena Engineering, General Acoustics (in Kiel even), 2wcom (out of Flensburg), F³:Forschung, Fakten, Fantasie (of Heikendorf), SIS Sensoren Instrumente System (Klausdorf), GISMA Connectors (Neumünster), Helzel Messtechnik (Kaltenkirchen), Hydromed Wissentschaftliche Beratung (Wedel), researchers at the University of Kiel’s Forschungs- und Technologiezentrum Büsum and the Leibniz Institute’s IFM-GEOMAR.

Fundamental steps are still necessary, such as the creation of two radar stations on Helgoland and Büsum. Jen-Peter Polleit of 2wcom has demonstrated the possibilities of this technology. Whoever sees the little box in his hands immediately thinks of a kitchen radio. The impression is deceptive. These devices could warn the citizens of Sweden, who live around atomic power utilities. If the device glows red (with sound and text), then thank VHF technologies. “It works similar to the system used by German radio, to increase the volume for traffic alerts”, says Polleit. Still, the device must be plugged into the wall and turned on. The monitoring project will show, what is possible on the Baltic. The initial data will be transferred to Büsum early in the year.