Instruments and Methods of Physical Oceanography

Moorings are measuring systems that remain in a specific location in the ocean for several years. A mooring initially consists of a base weight, a long rope and some buoyancy bodies that hold the rope vertically in the water column. Various measuring…

A CTD is an oceanographic instrument used to determine electrical conductivity, temperature, and other parameters in the water column. The salinity is calculated from conductivity while taking temperature and pressure into account. CTD probes are…

Ice-Tethered Profilers (ITPs) are autonomous, freely drifting measurement platforms that capture vertical profiles of water mass properties in the ice-covered ocean. The systems are anchored in the ice and measure temperature, salinity, and pressure in…

The PhytoOptics group uses a variety of optical instruments for ground-truthing of satellite data, algorithm development and continuous data acquisition of biogeochemical properties.

Floats are free drifting underwater buoys. They measure ocean currents, temperature, salinity and an increasing number of parameters according to availability of appropriate sensors. Their compressibility is less than or equal to seawater and, hence,…

The topAWI Triaxus (towed ocean profiler of the AWI) is a towed system manufactured by MacArtney A/S that serves as a device carrier for various sensors measuring parameters relevant to physical, chemical, and biological oceanography. It performs a…

In order to understand the marine phytoplankton’s role in the global marine ecosystem and biogeochemical cycles it is necessary to derive its global, in particular the distribution of major functional phytoplankton types (PFT), but also on phytoplankton…

The Precision Salinometer calculates the salinity of a water sample from the measurement of the electrical conductivity and the determination of its temperature. The calculations are based on the Practical Salinity Scale 1978 (PSS78) as published by…