ALBERT

Description: The GIZ Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia programme supports Tajik-Kyrgyz cooperation on the shared Isfara river basin by means of sustainable basin planning and management through capacity building. In addition, the rehabilitation of small-scale infrastructure and automatised flow measurement systems ensure a safe and fair allocation of water resources. As a result, improved water management and infrastructure in the Isfara River contribute to better information and water availability for more than 200,000 agricultural water users across both countries. Alongside already established methods of transboundary cooperation in the basin, which has complicated boundary issues, the hereinafter described measures counteract latent tensions among Tajik and Kyrgyz communities over the limited resource of arable land, which is closely linked to water. The GIZ Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia programme is implemented on behalf of the German Federal Foreign Office and cofunded by the European Union.

Description: In July 2007 GFZ hosted ILP’s first Potsdam Conference, titled “Frontiers in Integrated Solid Earth Sciences”. The results of this meeting were presented in an over 400 pages large Springer book, the first volume of a new series on the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE). In October 2010 ILP’s Second Potsdam Conference took place, entitled “Solid Earth – Basic Science for the Human Habitat”, again in Potsdam. More than 70 scientists from more than 20 states worldwide came together and shared their results, ideas and visions. This time, in September 2015, ILP’s 35th birthday was the motivation for “Celebrating Excellence in Solid Earth Sciences”. Together with more than 50 scientists, members of the ILP Task Forces and Coordinating Committees, the ILP bureau and ILP’s office came together for three days in September.

Description: The German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ operates a satellite-receiving station at Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen since 2001. Valuable support for several satellite missions was provided by the station on a best effort basis, while technical and software related issues, as well as uncertainties regarding important system properties, hindered any project participations with more binding commitments. The upcoming US-German GRACE-Follow On satellite mission with on-board GNSS-RO and gravity measurements and subsequent “near real-time” respectively low latency processing chains raised the demand to integrate the Ny-Ålesund station as the primary data receiving station of the mission’s ground segment. This required the demonstration of improved station performance and reliability with a perspective of sustainability as well as the determination of important antenna system parameters, such as the ratio of antenna gain to system noise (G/T). Analysis of receiving problems at the station in the past and considerations on methods to determine the station antennas characteristics suggested that improved antenna operation software was the most important and straightforward element on the planned way. Disappointing experiences with antenna operation programs of third parties, e.g., from shortcomings of functions, flexibility and support, indicated that the effort for an in-house development would pay off. Consequently new software for the semi-automatic operation of the antennas at the satellite receiving station at Ny-Ålesund was developed within this work. Main development objectives were the elimination of antenna operation problems which occurred in the past, to improve the station reliability, and to introduce program features for the support of required antenna measurements, e.g., such that use the sun as a natural radio signal source. Other focal points during the development were the program-internal timing routines, a compact, informative and operation-safe graphical user interface (GUI) and advanced operation logging features. Lessons learned by the operation of software from other parties in the years since 2001 were respected and even some hardware related issues with the antenna systems at Ny-Ålesund were solved by means of the new software. The new software “NYA-Sattrack” provides all required and desired functions, including some unconventional features. One example is the option to use two different external satellite orbit prediction programs and two sets of prediction elements (twoline elements). An operator can switch between the corresponding pass predictions at any time, even during a satellite contact with already moving antenna. This might be useful, e.g., in a Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP), when different predictions from different sources and with uncertain quality have to be used. Another example is the generation of graphical logs for each satellite contact. An operator can check these logs very fast and simultaneously with normal, text-based logs through a built-in log-viewer function. An eventually desired adaptation to other antenna system types with different technical properties is explicitly supported by the software design as all antenna-specific program code is allocated to individual software interface modules (Dynamic Link Libraries). The new program “NYA-GPS-SYNC” maintains the accuracy of the antenna operation computer clock to support precise operation timing. The two different antenna positioning systems (Elevation over Azimuth and X over Y) of the satellite-receiving station at Ny-Ålesund are operated routinely with NYA-Sattrack since July 2014 and each of the antennas tracks more than 25 satellite passes per day. The number of outages related to antenna operation issues and the manual effort for the operation of the antennas has decreased significantly since introduction of NYA-Sattrack. The new program features of NYA-Sattrack, e.g., such as the sun-tracking mode combined with scan modes, strongly supported the determination of important antenna system characteristics and the detection of a source of radio interference. All achievements of this work have a benefit for supported missions, e.g., due to a better knowledge about technical boundary conditions for contact planning and less data losses during data reception. NYA-Sattrack significantly improved the reliability, efficiency and sustainability to support current and future satellite missions and the Ny-Ålesund ground station is ready to work as the primary downlink station for the GRACE-FO mission, due for launch in February 2018.

Description: Das Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ betreibt seit 2001 eine Satelliten-Empfangsstation bei Ny-Ålesund auf Spitzbergen. Die Station hat, so gut es ging, wertvolle Dienste für etliche Satellitenmissionen geleistet. Verbindliche Verpflichtungen in Projekten konnten aber, wegen hard- und softwaretechnischer Probleme und den nur unsicher bekannten Leistungsparametern der Station, nicht eingegangen werden. Die aufkommende US-amerikanisch-deutsche GRACE-Follow On Satellitenmission für GNSS-RO- und Schwerefeldmessungen und die sich daran anschließenden nahe-Echtzeit Datenverarbeitungsketten führten zu dem Wunsch, die Ny-Ålesund Station als primäre Empfangsstation im Bodensegment der Mission zu integrieren. Dies erforderte den Nachweis von verbesserten Betriebseigenschaften, sowie verbesserter Betriebszuverlässigkeit und Zukunftssicherheit, und die Bestimmung wichtiger Antennenparameter, wie dem Verhältnis von Antennengewinn zu Systemrauschen (G/T). Analysen zu Empfangsproblemen an der Station in der Vergangenheit und Überlegungen zur Bestimmung der Antennencharakteristika legten nahe, dass der wichtigste und direkteste Schritt auf diesem Weg eine verbesserte Software für den Betrieb der Antennen sein würde. Wegen in verschiedener Hinsicht enttäuschenden Erfahrungen mit Antennenbetriebssoftware von Dritten, z.B. wegen unzureichenden Funktionen und mangelnder Flexibilität und Unterstützung, wurde angenommen, dass sich der Aufwand für eine eigene Programmentwicklung auszahlen würde. Infolgedessen wurde mit dieser Arbeit eine neue Software für den halb-automatischen Betrieb der Antennen an der Satelliten-Empfangsstation Ny-Ålesund entwickelt. Die wichtigsten Punkte dabei waren die Lösung der in der Vergangenheit beobachteten Betriebsprobleme mit den Antennen, bzw. die Verbesserung der Zuverlässigkeit der Station, und Funktionen für Messungen an und mit den Antennen, z.B. mit Nutzung der Sonne als natürliche Quelle für Radiosignale. Andere Schwerpunkte der Entwicklung waren die zeitlichen Abläufe im Programm, eine kompakte, informative und betriebssichere graphische Nutzerschnittstelle (GUI) und erweiterte Möglichkeiten zum Protokollieren (Loggen) des Betriebs. Dabei wurden die seit 2001 mit dem Betrieb von extern beschaffter Software gemachten Erfahrungen berücksichtigt und sogar durch Hardware verursachte Probleme beim Betrieb der Antennen in Ny-Ålesund durch die neue Software gelöst. Das neue Programm „NYA-Sattrack“ stellt alle benötigten und gewünschten Funktionen bereit, inklusive einiger ungewöhnlicher Funktionen. Ein Beispiel ist die Möglichkeit zur Nutzung von zwei unterschiedlichen externen Programmen zur Bahnvorhersage mit unterschiedlichen Bahnelementen (twoline elements). Ein Operator kann so jederzeit zwischen den beiden entsprechenden Bahnvorhersagen wechseln, sogar während eines Satellitenkontakts mit sich bereits bewegenden Antennen. Dies könnte z.B. in der ersten Zeit nach einem Satellitenstart nützlich sein, wenn unterschiedliche Bahnberechnungen mit unsicherer Genauigkeit von unterschiedlichen Quellen verwendet werden müssen. Ein anderes Beispiel ist die Erzeugung graphischer Logs für die einzelnen Satellitenkontakte. Diese Logs lassen sich von einem Operator sehr schnell überprüfen, durch eine integrierte Anzeigefunktion sogar zusammen mit den textbasierten Logdateien. Eine möglicherweise gewünschte Anpassung des Programms für andere Antennen mit unterschiedlichen Betriebseigenschaften wird dadurch unterstützt, dass antennenspezifischer Programmcode in Programmerweiterungen (Dynamic Link Libraries) platziert wurde. Das neue Programm “NYA-GPS-SYNC” kontrolliert die Uhr des Computers für die Antennensteuerung und sorgt so für einen zeitlich präzisen Betrieb. Die beiden unterschiedlichen Antennenpositionierungssysteme an der Satelliten- Empfangsstation Ny-Ålesund (Elevation über Azimut und X über Y) werden seit Juli 2014 routinemäßig mit NYA-Sattrack betrieben. Jede der beiden Antennen bedient mehr als 25 Satellitenkontakte pro Tag. Seit der Einführung von NYA-Sattrack haben betriebsbedingte Ausfälle stark abgenommen, ebenso der manuelle Aufwand zum Betrieb der Antennen. Die neuen Funktionen von NYA-Sattrack, wie z.B. das Verfolgen der Sonne mit einer Antenne in Kombination mit speziellen Bewegungsmustern, haben die Bestimmung wichtiger Antennenparameter und das Erkennen einer funktechnischen Störquelle ermöglicht. Alle erzielten Ergebnisse nützen indirekt auch den unterstützten Missionen, z.B. durch bessere Kenntnis der technischen Randbedingungen für die Planung von Kontakten und geringere Datenverluste beim Datenempfang. NYA-Sattrack hat die Zuverlässigkeit, Effektivität und Nachhaltigkeitsperspektive der Station für die Unterstützung aktueller und zukünftiger Satellitenmissionen stark verbessert, so dass diese nun für den geplanten Einsatz als primäre Empfangsstation für GRACE-FO bereit ist (geplanter Start im Februar 2018).

Description: Already today, Central Asia faces water stress with competing water uses and prevailing low water use efficiencies. For the future, climate, hydrologic and socio- economic changes are going to exacerbate the situation. Research undertaken in the frame of the CAWa project revealed that based on the climate model scenarios climate change will result in a further increase of mean annual, winter and summer air temperature, and a substantial further reduction of glacier-covered area in the Tien Shan, e.g. the Naryn basin by 20 – 60 % up to 2050 compared to the present state. The river runoff regime is expected to shift from a glacio-nival to a pluvio-nival runoff regime with increasing discharge in springtime and decreasing discharge in the summer months for more pessimistic climate scenarios. By 2050, the increasing temperature triggers an increase in crop water requirements by 5–15 % for most of the traditional crops in the Fergana valley. A detailed scenario analysis for the Fergana valley showed that the economies can cope with the future conditions if (1) water use efficiencies in irrigated agriculture are increased by applying new irrigation technologies and improving irrigation infrastructure, and (2) the land use is adjusted in favour of new cash-crops like vegetables, fruits, and grapes. These are “no-regret” adaptation measures which the Central Asian economies should undertake to cope with the socio-economic changes alone, even if there was no climate change.

Description: This E-book collates expert articles published on the Shale Gas Information Platform SHIP website (http://www.shale-gas-information-platform.org). The Shale Gas Information Platform is a network of international experts who share their expertise on different aspects of shale gas. With News, Basic Information and Expert Articles, SHIP features the scientific perspective within the current debate, adding factual argument to the pros and cons discussed publicly. The network is brought together by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. Most articles presented in this book are available in German and/or Polish on the SHIP website.

Description: The implementation of Integrated Water and Land Resources Management (IWLRM) in Central Asia is facing substantial challenges today. The most basic challenge among them, to which many other challenges can be traced back, is the building and development of capacities at the individual and organizational levels. This Policy Brief reviews the capacity building approaches taken by the German Water Initiative for Central Asia (“Berlin Process”), in particular: (1) short-term vocational trainings for water professionals offered by the CAWa research project, (2) regional master programme “Integrated Water Management” implemented at the German-Kazakh University in Almaty, (3) training module on river basin planning developed within the GIZ program “Transboundary Water Management in Central Asia”. These approaches address mainly the individual level of capacity building, but with the establishment of river basin commissions, the GIZ programme targeted also the institutional level. Key factors of success were the regional and trans-sectoral approach taken by all three programmes, the linking of science and practice, and the tailoring of the training contents to the practical needs of the participants.

Description: In our meeting Dynamic Earth – from Alfred Wegener to today and beyond we will review how Wegener‘s findings evolved into to modern Earth system science including its impact on climate and the Earth surface, and how this system affects our daily life: where humans live, what risks we are exposed to, where we find our resources. In the meeting we will hold sessions that cover the entire geoscience spectrum (from mineral physics over solid earth geodynamics to the climate sciences) and that explore the consequences of Wegeners findings on how humans use our planet today (from energy and mineral resources over georisks to utilisation of the subsurface and materials for modern society). We have invited keynote speakers that are eminent international scientists in these fields. In events open to the general public we will get an account of Wegeners final trip to Greenland on the history of science of his hypothesis.

Description: This brochure is designed for scientists and engineers of upcoming drilling projects and explains the key steps and important challenges in planning and executing continental scientific drilling.

Description: The processing of Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) data and the estimation of displacement is a nonlinear and user-driven procedure that can introduce large errors for noisy backscatter points. Results may differ significantly depending on chosen thresholds, filter settings, constraints and final interpretation. Thus the identification of valid PS with rather low errors in the SAR data is a crucial step in the PSI workflow. PSI-Explorer is a scientific prototype of our visual-analytics (VA) approach supporting this important task. The prototype is written in Java and operates on Matlab files.

Description: The consequences of climate change are highly important in the polar regions as ice-sheets and glaciers respond strongly to change in average temperature. The analysis of seismic signals (icequakes) emitted by glaciers (i.e., cryo-seismology) is thus gaining importance as a tool for monitoring glacier activity. To understand the scaling relation between regional glacier-related seismicity and actual small-scale local glacier dynamics and to calibrate the identified classes of icequakes to locally observed waveforms, a temporary passive seismic monitoring experiment was conducted in the vicinity of the calving front of Kronebreen, one of the fastest tidewater glaciers on Svalbard (Fig. 1). By combining the local observations with recordings of the nearby GEOFON station GE.KBS, the local experiment provides an ideal link between local observations at the glacier to regional scale monitoring of NW Spitsbergen. During the 4-month operation period from May to September 2013, eight broadband seismometers and three 4-point short-period arrays were operating around the glacier front of Kronebreen.

Description: In the context of Integrated Water Resources Management(IWRM), informed decision making requires accurate,timely, spatially extensive, consistent and wellunderstood data sets on climate, water and land resources.Earth observation technologies provide suchdata sets as well as methods and tools for the generationof high-quality data products to support planningand decision-making. This Policy Brief advocates theuse of Earth observation technologies and their integrationinto operational monitoring and decision-supportsystems in Central Asia based on examples fromthe CAWa project.

Description: The 3D geomechanical-numerical modelling of the in-situ stress state requires observed stress information at reference locations within the model area to be compared to the modelled stress state. This comparison of stress states and the ensuing adaptation of the displacement boundary conditions provide a best fit stress state in the entire model region that is based on the available stress information. This process is also referred to as calibration. Depending on the amount of available information and the complexity of the model the calibration is a lengthy process of trial-and-error modelling and analysis. The Fast Automatic Stress Tensor Calibration (FAST Calibration) is a method and a Matlab script that facilitates and speeds up the calibration process. The method requires only three model scenarios with different boundary conditions. The modelled stress states at the locations of the observed stress state are extracted. Then they are used to compute the displacement boundary conditions that are required in order to achieve the best fit of the modelled to the observed stress state. Furthermore, the influence of the individual observed stress information on the resulting stress state can be weighted.