Leibniz MMS Days 2017 - Abstract

Gräwe, Ulf

Where to put it? How to relocate a "permanent" observation station?

The deep water ventilation of the Baltic Sea depends crucially on the inflow of saline, oxygen rich water from the North Sea. At present, the permanent observation station “Darss Sill” (in the western Baltic Sea) in the direct pathway of the inflowing water masses allows the observation of these inflows. Due to the increased demand of offshore wind energy, potential offshore constructions sites would require a relocation of the “Darss Sill” station. To investigate possible new locations, we conducted a site assessment with an eddy resolving model of the western Baltic Sea. Based on model output fields, we computed spatial maps of autocorrelation time scale, spatial correlation length, consecutive days with salinities larger than 17 g/kg, reconstruction error of Major Baltic Inflows, and cumulative salinity distributions. With the help of a Monte Carlo analysis, we combined these maps to identify places which minimise the observational error.