Projects

Dr. Gade has been participating in various national and international projects:

ongoing:

• DeMarine-U (nation.; 2008-2011; 2012-2015)

• SOPRAN (nation.; 2007-2013)

completed:

• DeMOSSS (EU-Russ.-Ukrain.; 2007-2009)

• MOPED (EU-Russ.-Ukrain.-Azerbajd.; 2007-2009). The aim of the INTAS project MOPED was to develop recommendations for a system to use all available information from satellites and independent sources in order to detect and (where possible) quantify chronic oil pollution (small spills and wastewater discharges), whilst reducing the risk of false positives.

• WiSSCy (nation.; 2005-2008). Impact of Wind, Rain, and Surface Slicks on Air-Sea CO2 Transfer Velocity - Tank Experiments - (WiSSCy) was a cooperation between the University of Heidelberg and UHH. The goal was to improve the understanding of the parameterization of air-sea gas exchange with emphasis on CO2. Using UHH's linear wind-wave tank facility, gas exchange coefficients were inferred by measuring gas transfer under a wide variety of parameters such as wind, mechanically generated waves, rain, and surface films. Emphasis was on the physical processes involved in the air-sea gas exchange and its quantitative measurement, and experiments were performed for evasion and invasion to investigate if rain-induced gas transfer is symmetrical or asymmetrical. These experiments allowed to determine parameterizations of the gas exchange as a function of parameters of the atmospheric boundary layers as they are needed in climate models and for the analysis of satellite data.

• DeCoP (EU-Russ.-Ukrain.; 2004-2006). The aim of the INTAS project Detection of Marine Oil Pollution in Coastal and Shelf Seas Using Multi-Sensor, Multi-Platform Earth Observation Data (DeMoP) was to develop techniques for the synergistic use of satellite data to monitor pollution from pipe-line seeps, waste-water discharges, marine traffic and spillages from routine operations as part of offshore or tanker activities.

• SIMP (EU-Russ.; 2004-2007). Slicks as Indicators for Marine Processes (SIMP) was a 3-years project aiming at spanning the wide range from small-to meso- and large-scale investigations in laboratory wind-wave facilities and dedicated field experiments, respectively. Four main study areas were identified: the Black Sea and Baltic Sea in Europe and the Sea of Japan and Okhotsk Sea in the Far East. Quasi-biogenic slicks (i.e. artificial surface films consisting of basic compounds of natural slicks) were deployed in test areas in the Black Sea and the Sea of Japan and were used for systematic analyses of dynamic processes. Laboratory experiments conducted in Hamburg and Nizhny Novgorod provided new insights into visco-elastic properties of surfactants and into their role in water wave damping in the presence of sub-surface turbulence. The findings were used to design, and were confirmed during, the field experiments. Frequent acquisition of multi-frequency satellite data allowed the detection and identification of meso-scale marine processes, and their tracking in space and time. The comprehensive analyses of satellite imagery improved our knowledge of dynamical (atmospheric and oceanic) processes in the coastal zone.

• MARSAIS (EU; 2002-2003)

• Bluewater (EU; 2000-2002) was focussing on Computerised Video Camera Image Analysis For Monitoring Pollution In Water. The German team of UHH performed laboratory and field experiments on the detectability of (quasi-) biogenic marine surface films by video camera systems, and thereby provided the scientific background for the development of an automated video surveillance system of near-shore coastal waters.

• EURoPAK-B (national; 1998-2000)

• In the frame of a collaboration with the GKSS Research Center (national; 1999-2002).

• AURORa (national; 1998-2001). The German national project Anwendungsorientierte Untersuchungen zur Regenfernerkundung über dem Ozean mit Radarverfahren (Application-oriented studies on remote sensing of rain over the ocean using radar techniques; AURORa) was devoted to improved studies of radar signatures of rain events (rain cells and rain bands) over the World's oceans. Laboratory measurements at UHH's wind-wave tank and field campaigns at a radar tower at the mouth of the river Elbe were used to gain further insight into both the very processes linked to rain impinging into the water surface and the effect heavy rain has on the radar backscatering from the ocean.

• Clean Seas (EU; 1996-99) was a European Environment programme designed to evaluate the contribution that present and future satellite systems can make towards monitoring marine pollution. Systematic measurements were made over three European coastal zones, in the Central Baltic Sea, the Southern North Sea, and the North-Western Mediterranean Sea, to build an archive of repeat observations. Routinely acquired synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of those test areas were used to generate first statistics on the spatial and seasonal distribution of marine oil pollution in European marginal seas.

• SIR-C/X-SAR (intern.; 1993-96). The two Spaceborne Imaging Radar - C / X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar missions were a joint project of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the German Space Agency (DARA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). In April and October 1994, an L-, C- and X-band SAR was flown on the space shuttle Endeavour during two 11-day missions. SAR images showing natural (biogenic) surface slicks as well as man-made (anthropogenic) mineral oil spills were analyzed with the aim to study whether or not active radar techniques can be applied to discriminating between these two kinds of surface films. Controlled slick experiments were carried out during both shuttle missions in the German Bight of the North Sea as well as in the northern part of the Sea of Japan and the Kuroshio Stream region where surface films of different visco-elastic properties were deployed within the swath of the shuttle radars.

• SAMPLEX'92 (Dutch-German; 1992) was a collaborative German-Dutch oil recovery exercise in the German Bight of the North Sea. The Remote Sensing Unit at the Institute of Oceanography participated in this exercise with its multi-frequency/,multi-polarization scatterometer HELISCAT, which was flown on a (BO-105) helicopter and which was used to measure the radar contrast of different marine oil spills and its dependence on oil type and age.

• SAXON-FPN (US-German; 1991-93). The Synthetic Aperture Radar and X Band Ocean Nonlinearities (SAXON) - Forschungsplattform Nordsee (FPN) program was a 3-year effort to investigate radar backscatter from the ocean and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery of the ocean. A secondary objective of the program was to explore the relationship between acoustic and microwave scattering from the ocean surface. The program was a joint effort between the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. It consisted primarily of a major field experiment (phase I) in the North Sea on and around the German Forschungsplattform Nordsee (FPN) during November 1990, a second, smaller field experiment (phase II) on the same platform in November 1991, and a series of four data analysis workshops.

Moreover, he has been principal investigator (PI) or co-investigator (Co-I) of a number of projects devoted to the use and the analysis of data from European and international remote sensing satellites such as ERS 1/2, Envisat, TerraSAR-X, and ALOS.