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)

• WiSSCy (nation.; 2005-2008)

• DeCoP (EU-Russ.-Ukrain.; 2004-2006)

• SIMP (EU-Russ.; 2004-2007)

• MARSAIS (EU; 2002-2003)

• Bluewater (EU; 2000-2002)

• EURoPAK-B (national; 1999-2000)

• 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.