Safe Shipping with KOSAS and SEISMESS
- Safe shipping counts as one of the central aims of maritime policies. To implement this, European maritime policies and international bodies prescribe monitoring systems such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS). However, the current network of land based AIS stations is only suitable for reception in coastal regions. Current plans for research in the integration of satellite systems (Earth observation, communication and navigation systems) will demonstrate global services for increased safety in shipping. The EU plans incentive schemes to realise the goal of environmentally friendly maritime transport. However, the implementation of rules and regulations requires reliable monitoring which can be achieved by satellite based systems. (more...)
Bremen Particulate Matter (BREPAMA)
- More than two million premature deaths each year are attributed to urban outdoor and indoor air pollution (World Health Report, 2002). It is therefore an urgent task to ascertain the surveillance of air quality parameters. Since the 1990s, a special attention is drawn to adverse respiratory effects caused by natural and anthropogenic airborne particulate matter, fine suspended and solid matter with a size in the range of nanometers and micrometers.
- Recent studies showed that approximately 50.000 deaths in the U.S. (Mokdad, 2004) and 200.000 deaths each year in Europe (Pope, 2002) are caused only by the exposure to these fine airborne particles with diameters smaller than 10 micrometer, so called PM10.
- Currently, all measurement data for the surveillance of particulate matter threshold alerts are provided by so called in-situ measurements. (more...)
Climate Gas Observations
- Today, there is no doubt that a global climate change is ongoing. Measurements reveal an increase of temperature by about 0.7° every ten years, as well as an enormous increase of anthropogenic greenhouse gases like carbon monoxide and dioxide, methane and water vapor concentrations by up to 30%. The international policies recognize the need for actions which is forced by many actual official reports and new scientific results, like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report of the United Nations. (more...)
Air Quality Monitoring in Ports
- Ships plying in European waters in 2000 released 3.6 million tons of NOx and 2.6 million tons of SO2. If left unchecked, emissions will rise by 10-30 percent during the next decade, which means that by 2010, ship emissions could be equivalent to more than three-quarters of the EU total for SO2 from land-based sources, and about two-thirds of that total for NOx.
- Fishing vessels are responsible for very little (no more than 2 percent) of total pollutant emissions from ships, while ferries account for 11-12 percent. The remaining 86 percent or so comes mainly from cargo vessels.
- About 95 percent of all emissions take place at sea, and 5 percent occur while ships are in or near port.
- Some 40 percent of all the estimated maritime releases of air pollutants occur from ships moving between ports in the EU. About an equal amount comes from ships either leaving or arriving in EU ports, while 12 percent comes from ships traveling either to or from ports in EU candidate countries. (more...)
Sea Ice Maps from Satellite
- Sea ice maps from the Arctic and Antarctic become more and more of public interest not only due to their direct connection to the global warming. There is a strong demand for precise maps for the security of ship traffic, since the world trade increased dramatically in this part of our environment.
- Sea ice maps retrieved from the AMSR instrument on the EOS-AQUA satellite are generated already operationally in Bremen and frequently used, even from authorities like the German Federal Shipping and Hydrograph authority (BSH), Hamburg or from research institutes like the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Bremerhaven. Even Arved Fuchs uses the sea ice maps from Bremen for his expeditions through the ice. (more...)
Operational sea ice thickness information
- Sea ice thickness information is essential for safe and environmentally friendly marine operations in polar waters. It is required for the design of icebreakers, offshore structures, and port facilities, as well as supporting information for ship routing through ice and ice forecasting.
- Sea ice thickness is also required for observations and modelling of climate change in the polar regions. Together with ice extent, sea ice thickness is considered an indicator for climate change, and is used to improve and validate numerical models to predict the future development of the global sea ice cover.
- Despite its importance, there are only few ice thickness measurements available, and most can only be gathered with huge logistic efforts, e.g. by nuclear submarines or icebreaking research vessels for the deployment of ice profiling sonars or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is therefore developing alternative methods operable by helicopters, airplanes and satellites. (more...)
Phytooptics - Marine Phytoplankton
(click to enlarge)
- Marine phytoplankton contributes 30 to 60% to the global primary production, but only 1 to 2% to the global biomass. Therefore, the functioning of the entire ecosystem of the world’s ocean depends on the energy produced entirely through the photosynthetic activity of these phytoplankton confined to the thin layer of lighted ocean surface waters. By that they are playing a key role in the biological pump for carbon sequestration and determining whether a part of the ocean is a carbon sink or source. Different functional groups of phytoplankton are playing different roles in the global biogochemical fluxes: biomineralizer (e.g. silicate), calicifiers, DMSP producers (which enforces cloud formation), toxic algae (causing high fish mortality), notrogen fixers, … It is important to be able to observe these phytoplankton populations on long time and large spatial scales in order to understand the mechanisms, variability and change and to provide a basis for numerical models, which can be used to simulate the ecosystem development for use, e. g. in fisheries management. (more...)
Semantic Interoperability
for Geodata Infrastructures
- Every day a huge amount of data will be produced by monitoring our environment. Several institutions and organizations collect environmental and security-related data to fulfil their duties and responsibilities. However, it proves difficult to use these data in other contexts, e.g. in case of emergency. A crucial factor is the lack of schematic and semantic interoperability between information sources of different bodies.
- It will be necessary to provide a common understanding of the used terms to provide interoperability on this level. The main goal of our activities is to develop concepts and applications for intelligent geoservices within geodata infrastructures, leading to schematic and semantic interoperability in the area of geodata processing. Intelligent search for geoobjects with specific qualities is a typical application for the intended integrated infrastructure of geodata and geoservices. (more...)
Mobile Computing used by
Emergency Response Forces and Rescue Robots
- GMES data can supply emergency response forces as well as rescue robots with updated overviews of e.g. tide, temperature, wind strength, tidal range, etc. in emergency cases effectively.
- The emergency response situations are typically complex, non-standard situations. They exhibit a threat to human life and material values and require immediate and fast intervention. Often, working conditions are very difficult, including reduced visibility through smoke, high respectively low temperatures, noise, hazardous materials, electricity and unstable building structures. Successful interventions require the collaboration of highly trained specialists, including the operational forces on site and the managing and controlling personal. These emergency forces use specialized equipment for protection, life support (breathing apparatus) and their operational activities (thermal cameras, water hose, etc.) and they often operate at the limits of their physiological and cognitive capacity. (more...)
Extending and Verifying GMES Data
using Autonomous Objects
- In analogy to conventional processes e.g. in the logistics domain, autonomous processes are in need of knowledge to perform their task. Data, information, and knowledge are the key resources which ensure the quality of such a process. Knowledge management is required to support autonomous processes by context-sensitive provision of knowledge. Furthermore, it has to be considered, that actors in these processes act in a competitive way. Consequently, information and knowledge should be treated as tradable goods which potentially have a high utility for their consumers.
- Autonomy can be realized by the application of intelligent agents and multiagent systems. Since distributed processes originating from mutually independent decision makers (enterprises) interact in a highly dynamic environment, new requirements for information technology emerge. (more...)
Multi-dimensional data
- Aims and Objectives: Today's huge in-situ and remote sensing assets often cannot be leveraged by user communities due to technical and other obstacles. Recognising this, the INSPIRE EC Directive has given standardised data access to Earth observation based data and information products a top priority within the framework of the GMES Programme. In support of the GMES/INSPIRE aims, the Earthlook project is developing demonstrations for large-scale sensor and observation data archives which is web-accessible for navigation, retrieval, and analysis through open Web interfaces based on the standards defined by Open GeoSpatial Consortium and INSPIRE. The Earthlook project runs from February 2007 to February 2008. It is partly funded by BIG Bremen.
- Technical: Meanwhile it has become well accepted that raster offerings add value to geo information services. Actually, 2-D imagery is but the tip of the iceberg - the general concept of multi-dimensional spatiotemporal raster data covers 1-D sensor time series, 2-D imagery, 3-D image time series (x/y/t) and exploration data (x/y/z), 4-D climate models (x/y/z/t), and many more. Data sizes frequently range into multi-Terabyte, in future: multi-Petabyte volumes for single objects. The Earthlook project has set out to demonstrate and showcase usefulness of Web-database technology for fast, flexible, and open raster services, ranging from navigation and portrayal to analysis and decision support. The WMS, WCS, and WCPS service specifications of the Open GeoSpatial Consortium (OGC) are being implemented to obtain open, interoperable access points. (more...)
Pilot Project: Container Security System
- Bremen decided to support the joint initiative of Astrium in Bremen and OHB System to develop a container security system, which meets the new requirements for import regulations of the USA (post September 11). (more...)
Perspective
- To create substantial contribution of existing competencies to the envisaged national and European GMES networks
- to define and initiate pilot end-to-end services, tailored to the complementary needs of the states in the North and Baltic Sea region
- to create a network of good cooperation with national institutions (e.g. DLR), ESA, EU/EC and existing European GMES competence centers
- to create market demand by contacting and cooperation with potential users
- investigation and organisation of a cooperative approach of the North and Baltic Sea and Bremen regions
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