Long-term data is increasingly no longer collected manually but with the help of autonomous measuring systems. One example is the Ferry Box system on the passenger ship MS Helgoland, which has been providing data on a wide range of parameters, e.g. temperature, salt and oxygen concentration, every minute since 2016. The ship sails daily on the route Cuxhaven - Helgoland - Cuxhaven. The measuring system continuously samples the water body along this transect and provides measurement data which are used for the analysis of the space-time variation of parameters and processes in the coastal transition zone.

A second important observatory near Helgoland is the Margate field, which hosts a large number of moored sensor and is used for insitu ecological experiments. You find more information on MarGate here.