MOSES
MOSES is an observing system of the Helmholtz Research Field "Earth and Environment" that investigates the evolution and impacts of highly dynamic, often extreme events using a systemic monitoring approach.
Events and Trends
By quantifying energy, water, nutrient, and greenhouse gas fluxes during short-term events such as weather extremes, abrupt permafrost thaw, or rapidly changing ocean currents, the system provides data to study potential long-term environmental impacts. Such event-oriented, yet cross-compartment datasets are necessary to better understand the impacts of climate change and develop adaptation strategies.
Meteorological and Hydrological Extremes
During the last decades, weather extremes such as heavy precipitation events and subsequent floods or heatwaves and droughts increased around the world, causing enormous ecological and socio-economic damage. The MOSES working group "Meteorological and Hydrological Extremes" investigates comprehensive event chains from the evolution of such extremes to their environmental impacts. In addition, the group uses measuring systems to capture and investigate compound events occurring as a combination of these hazards.
Heavy Precipitation and Floods
In the past thirty years, the frequency of heavy precipitation events increased globally, and projections of river floods indicate increases in the course of the century for most regions. Prominent recent extremes in Central Europe are the floods in the Elbe and Danube catchments in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2013. In 2021, several European countries were affected by severe floods, most devastating in the German Eifel region. In Germany alone, more than 180 people lost their lives and damages exceeded €33 billon. In addition, a series of localized flash floods on small river catchments were triggered by convective storms in 2016 and 2017. Because of their enormous socioeconomic damages, a thorough understanding of the evolution and impacts of heavy precipitation and flood events is mandatory.
The Elbe River, its estuary and the coastal North Sea have been a recurrent focus of MOSES campaigns in recent years, primarily examining the impacts of the past extreme low-water events on the transport of dissolved nutrients and pollutants as well as on greenhouse gas emissions from the inland Elbe to the North Sea. Hereon, in collaboration with UFZ, AWI and GEOMAR, has been actively planning those campaigns, participating in them with our research vessel Ludwig Prandtl and analyzing the hydrological, biogeochemical and pollutant situation of the tidal part of the Elbe River, the Elbe Estuary and the German Bight. A minimum of one campaign annually has helped to establish a baseline for a variety of quantities against which extreme events can be evaluated.
Riding the wave: MOSES ad hoc campaign collects unique data during the Elbe Flood
News article about the Elbe Flood and data collectionScientists from UFZ, HEREON, GEOMAR and AWI mobilized on short notice in late December 2023 to sample the effects of the most recent flood along the Elbe River into the North Sea. The operational plan for such a flood event was already in the drawer for several years, but now it had to be executed rapidly during the Christmas holidays. With the onset of the flood at the end of December, UFZ scientists tracked the peak of the flood wave over a period of eight days from Bad Schandau at the German-Czech border to Lauenburg near Hamburg. From the weir in Geesthacht, Hereon colleagues took over the monitoring of the flood wave in the tidal Elbe and its entry into the German Bight. These investigations were actively supported by the Hamburg Port Authority and the ferry line operator FRS Elbfähre Glückstadt Wischhafen. Following the arrival of the wave in Cuxhaven, scientists from AWI and GEOMAR started their observations in the German Bight. This campaign (as well as MOSES in general) is an excellent example of the added value of collaboration, not just across disciplines, but also across research centers and fields.