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established near the Cape Verde Islands and will contribute data to GEOSS. The ZMAW
operates 3 moorings in the Nordic Seas as part of OceanSites.
Germany has played an important role in the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE)
and has sampled several of the WOCE hydrographical sections. Although there is no special
funding for these activities a repeated ship-based hydrographical network based on the for
mal WOCE lines is continued by the AWI and the lUP-Bremen. The AWI is repeating hydro-
graphical surveys along SR03 and SR04 in the southern ocean and performs yearly meas
urements at Fram Strait and along 75°N. The lUP-Bremen is operating the A02 section every
other year. Data are submitted to the WODC.
The AWI is also contributing to the global surface drifting buoy array with three buoys in the
northern polar region. The ZMAW will start operation of 25 surface drifting buoys when the
SMOS satellite mission is under way in 2009. The surface buoys are equipped with salinity
sensors for satellite validation. Data will be reported to the international drifter data assembly
centre.
The AWI is conducting underway pC02 and TC02 measurements in the water column from
Polarstern along sections A13.5 and S04A in the southern ocean. The IfM-Geomar uses a
VOS between Europe and North America to measure pC02 and TC02. Data are archived at
the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC).
There is only one official Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) core sea level station
which is operated by Germany. It‘s location is at Cuxhaven and it is serviced by the Federal
Waterways Directorate North (WSD Nord23). Scientifically the data are looked after by the
BfG. Hourly data are sent on a monthly basis to the data centre in Hawaii. In the research
community additional activities are maintained to provide long-term sea level data. The AWI
is providing 15 PIEs for validation of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE)
mission, additional 4 PIEs are maintained by the lUP-Bremen for the same purpose.
DWD funds the meteorological equipment for 857 merchant ships and research vessels with
in the framework of the WMO programme VOS (Voluntary Observing Ship). Most of the ob
servations are transmitted in real-time to the GTS. The total amount of observations is stored
to electronic data medium or manual diaries that are fetched by the PMO (Port Meteorologi
cal Officer) during their visits on board. Then, the data sets are transferred for climatological
processing. About 250.000 observations are generated by German VOS worldwide each
year. The VOSClim contribution is also managed by DWD and reported under the meteoro
logical section of this report.
3.2 Narrative of nominating national focal points and establishing
partnerships between ocean research and operational commu
nities
Due to the diversity of oceanic climate research in Germany contributions come from many
different institutions. A high level national focal point for the oceanographic community is a
member of the CLIVAR Steering committee (Prof. Visbeck, IfM-Geomar). The Argo pro
gramme has provided a good link between the ocean research and operational communities.
The German contribution to Argo has been developed from a joint research project and float
deployment and technical development are advanced in close collaboration with the scientific
community.
