The Secret Agent Among Researchers

What drives Institue Director Prof Burkard Baschek?

Photo: Hereon/ Christian Schmid

Prof Burkard Baschek leads the Operational Systems division at the Institute of Coastal Research.

Science has long failed to study small water eddies. They move across the surface for too short a time. Oceanographer Burkard Baschek, however, made the breakthrough – since then, the eddies have never let him go. Today he studies the phenomenon using a mix of a high tech and hands-on approach.

Physics? “I dropped the subject as early as possible,” says Burkard Baschek, world renowned oceanographic researcher – and physicist. The 49-year-old smiles. He knows how surprising this aversion sounds today. After all, he’s been long regarded as one of the leading physical oceanographers. It’s the ocean’s dynamics he is taken by above all else: Baschek researches the small eddies at the ocean’s surface. They appear unexpectedly, moving the seawater layers with tremendous force – and then dissolve after merely a few hours. Few other researchers in the world have studied this phenomenon as extensively as Baschek, a director at the Hereon’s Institute of Coastal Research.

As a child, however, it was the biology of the sea that fascinated him more. “It was during my civil service on the Sylt mudflats that I realised I was not only interested in nature conservation,” reminisces Baschek today.

„I wanted to understand the marine system much more comprehensively.“

That’s why he enrolled in physics, first in his hometown of Heidelberg, then transferring to Kiel after two years, where he studied physical oceanography.

He was then drawn to far away places, to Canada and the United States. There he stayed for thirteen years, researching and teaching. At the time, marine science was only just beginning to understand that an unexplained driving force in the oceans existed: computational models show that the small eddies form everywhere within the oceans across the globe. It has, however, never been possible to document their occurrence or carry out systematic measurements – the approach as to how to obtain this data was missing. This is because the small eddies disintegrate much faster than the large ocean currents, such as the Gulf Stream. “Measurements can therefore hardly be planned,” explains Baschek, “but we researchers must spontaneously react as soon as we spot an eddy from the air, then carry out as many measurements as possible.”

His first solution to this problem is a special rope onto which several sensors can be fastened at the same time – he pulls this measurement line at unusually high speed through the seawater.

Baschek also launches aircraft into the sky that are equipped with special thermal imaging cameras. They can register temperature differences of only 0.03 degrees. They open up a view of how the water layers of different temperatures mix in an eddy. This measurement system is unique even today – and is ahead of the pack globally. In fact, the researcher succeeds in recording data from inside an eddy for the first time.

It is sophisticated developments like these that have earned Baschek the reputation as the “James Bond of science.” He enjoys tinkering around, testing the most modern technology (currently, artificial penguins and augmented reality glasses), but he also likes to combine simple, well-known devices together.

Technology, however, shouldn't be an end in itself, Baschek points out, but must always remain in relation to the goal of a research project. For his most famous expedition to date, Clockwork Ocean, for example, he not only launched speedboats, aircraft and underwater robots in 2016, but also launched a Zeppelin, which floated over Germany and travelled to its operational region above the Baltic Sea. While this drew enormous attention to the project, it was primarily to serve research, as the Zeppelins can be “parked” in the air like no other aircraft. This allows an optimal and constant view of the eddies. This measurement system is unique even today – and is a global leader.

Expeditions like these are the “highlights of a researcher's lifetime,” says Baschek. Last year, for example, he travelled with colleagues to Cape Verde. In the waters off the archipelago he studied nutrient transport by ocean eddies. It is unclear whether they also transport nutrients from the lower layers of the sea to the upper, light-flooded areas and thus stimulate algal growth. “We currently assume that approximately half of the global phytoplankton is produced in small ocean eddies,” says Baschek. The eddies could therefore be vital for life in the sea.

Teamwork is particularly important for the institute director on these expeditions:

„We all make strides when different disciplines together look at a region or a research question“

Baschek is also a team player in his private life: he plays canoe polo and enjoys diving with friends – in areas such as the Great Barrier Reef. The corals off the coast of Australia are fascinating to the researcher: “Their biodiversity shows us very clearly what we’re losing if don’t protect the sea.” The oceanographer explains that locations like Hamburg's Tropical Aquarium, which show living corals and support the protection of wild reefs, are therefore an important component for species protection.

But as important as the exchange with friends and colleagues is to him, sometimes Baschek likes to withdraw entirely. Early paddling trips took him to Alaska, where he spent five weeks alone in the wilderness. “I’ve also paddled through the eddies that I’m researching,” says Baschek. “But in these moments, I see only nature: the glow of the sea and the calving glaciers, orcas appearing next to my kayak or bears hunting on the shore.” There it is again: the thrill of marine biology. In the shape of a physicist.