%0 report
%@ 1866-3192
%A Bussmann, I., Anselm, N., Brix, H., Fischer, P., Flöser, G., Geissler, F., Kamjunke, N.

%D 2021
%J Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung

 
%R doi:10.48433/BzPM_0751_2021
%T The MOSES Sternfahrt Expeditions of the Research Vessels ALBIS, LITTORINA, LUDWIG PRANDTL, MYA II and UTHÖRN to the Elbe River, Elbe Estuary and German Bight in 2020
%U https://doi.org/10.48433/BzPM_0751_2021
 
%X SUMMARY AND ITINERARYBuilding  on  our  cruises  and  experiences  in  2019,  we  wanted  to  continue  and  expand  the  trips in 2020 (cf. BzPM_0741_2020). In discussion with colleagues from Modular Observation Solutions  for  Earth  Systems  (MOSES)  and  Program-oriented  Funding  (PoF)  IV  of  the  Helmholtz  Association,  the  planned  cruise  in  2020  served  as  a  joint  test  case  for  MOSES  instrumentation, as well as the further establishment of the communication between the groups concerning preparation of common campaigns, planning of available equipment, determination of  responsibilities  and  building  collaborating  teams  to  investigate  processes  across  the  compartments. A special focus was set on the intercalibration of sensors and parameters, by insisting on several inter-calibration times for most sensors, measuring at the same time and location.The data management will be challenging as data from marine institutes / sensors will have to  be  combined  with  terrestrial  institutes  /  sensors.  All  sensors  were  registered  in  MOSES  data  management  tool  (https://moses-dmp.gfz-potsdam.de/)  beforehand.  The  registration  procedure  had  been  considerably  improved,  now  the  applicability  in  practice  was  to  be  checked.  All  sensors  and  data  are  now  linked  in  the  new  MOSES  data  discovery  portal  (https://moses-data.gfz-potsdam.de). The decisive factor for the southern North Sea (or German Bight) is which water body and with which constituents it arrives in the Tide-Elbe area and how it is further modified in this area. Thus, the idea arose to continuously trace a group of parameters from the beginnings of the Elbe to the North Sea. What are the main impact factors for terrestrial and coastal water quality during floods and low water periods? Data for a better understanding of the different branches of  the  relevant  event  chain  were  provided  by  investigations  within  the  Elbe  river  catchment  (starting at the Czech/German border), along the middle course, Tide-Elbe und Elbe estuary (German Bight). To follow the water from the Elbe our campaign started with the Albis (research vessel from the UFZ), travelling with the water velocity of the Elbe; from 4 to 12 August. As the water takes about 2 weeks to travel from Geesthacht to Cuxhaven at the river mouth, the next campaign started on 25 and 26 August 2020. The Ludwig Prandtl (HZG) started at ebb tide near Cuxhaven, thus reducing the marine influence and focusing on the Elbe water. The estuarine  cruise  was  followed  by  the  marine  cruise,  from  31  August  to  3  September  2020 5Summary and Itinerarywith three coastal research vessels, covering a broad area within the German Bight. Different thematic  teams  were  covering  the  various  processes  across  the  considered  compartments:  terrestrial waters, coastal and marine zones. The basic hydrographic parameters (temperature and conductivity or salinity) were measured by FerryBoxes and probes on the ships, with some instruments actually being passed from ship to ship. Similarly, atmospheric and dissolved greenhouse gases (CH4 and CO2) were measured throughout. To learn more about the phytoplankton or productivity of the water, chlorophyll a, turbidity  and  nutrients  were  also  determined.  The  carbon  cycle  was  continuously  described  with the parameters TA, DOC, POC and DIC (total alkalinity, dissolved and particulate organic carbon, and dissolved inorganic carbon).As improvement from the previous cruises, we extended the duration of our cruises. Thus, for Sternfahrt_5 we could cover a wide area for four days with three ships, even though Corona restrictions allowed only 4 scientists on board and partly restricted access to the vessels.Also, the problem of switching from “on the way” modus to vertical sampling has been solved as now all vessels have d-ship installed which provides exact timing of the stations and switches. This information is now incorporated into the O2A as actions, consequently the data can be easily separated.In  the  following  chapters  and  the  tables  in  the  annex,  we  explain  in  more  detail  the  set-up  of  the  cruises  and  our  experiences.  All  of  our  data  are  now  deposited  in  the  database  athttps://sensor.awi.de  and  https://www.ufz.de/record/dmp.  However,  such  complex  set-up  as  in  our  combined  Elbe-2020  cruises  are  not  easily  mirrored  in  the  database,  thus  this  cruise  report should also help to use the obtained data and their meta data along the river Elbe and its estuary as well as in the southern North Sea.