ALBERT

Description: Cliffs line many erosional coastlines. Localized failures can cause land loss and hazard, and impact ecosystems and sediment routing. Links between cliff erosion and forcing mechanisms are poorly constrained, due to limitations of classic approaches. Combining multi-seasonal seismic and drone surveys, wave, precipitation and groundwater data we study drivers and triggers of seismically detected failures along the chalk cliffs on Germany's largest island, Rügen. The network consists of four (later five) seismic stations along the 8.6 km long chalk cliff coast. Waveforms are available from the Geofon data centre, under network code 4K, and are embargoed until Jan 2021.

Description: The GeoDataNode project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) conducted a survey of data management practices at GFZ. The aim was to assess the state of current practices and needs, and their alignment to institutional and national guidelines for data management. The target audience included scientific and technical employees at all levels. A response rate of 24% of the target demographic was achieved. The survey revealed a general need for improvement and structuring of research data handling. This includes provision of adequate storage space, back-up schedules, and the familiarization of young researchers with good scientific practice.

Description: This document is intended to provide basic guidance to researchers who work with digital data as well as all stakeholders with an interest in this issue and also provides advice on sources of further information. It was prepared by the Research Data Working Group in the Priority Initiative “Digital Information” of the Alliance of German Science Organisations.

Description: The 2016 LoNNe (Loss of the Night Network) intercomparison campaign is the fourth of four campaigns planned during EU COST Action ES1204. The first campaign took place in 2013 in Lastovo, Croatia, the second in Madrid, Spain (Bará et al 2015), the third in Torniella and Florence, Italy (Kyba et al 2015a). The 2016 campaign took place at the Parc Astronòmic Montsec (PAM). The campaign was supported by the European Collective Awareness Platform for Social and Sustainable Innovation (CAPPSI) STARS4ALL, in which the activity is planned to become a continuous light pollution initiative (LPI). The financing of this campaign, which is listed as a milestone in the MoU of the COST Action ES1204, was unexpectedly waived by the EU-COST Office due to administrative complications and re-organization of the grant-periods. The campaign continued the strategy of taking measurements at multiple sites, this year with a main fixed site and then excursions to other sites. The goals of the campaigns included: ● Understanding the difference between extinction measurements made by DSLR photometry and classical astronomical (telescope) photometry, and also understanding the relation between extinction and sky brightness at these two sites. ● Examining the difference in radiance measured with the mosaic technique of the US National Parks Service camera compared to all-sky fisheye imagery ● Examining the relationships between all-sky and zenith radiance reported by different instruments ● Quantifying the sky brightness at the sites, including full zenith spectral radiance at selected locations ● Measuring the systematic uncertainty on handheld SQM observations due to unit-to-unit differences This report provides a brief synopsis of the campaign and its preliminary outcomes. Section 2 describes the measurement locations, the detailed activities of the participants, the instruments used, and the environmental conditions. Section 3 describes a meeting with local authorities that took place during the campaign. Section 4 provides some preliminary results, outlines the ongoing analyses, and presents research questions for the next campaign to address. Section 5 provides recommendations for future intercomparison campaigns. The Municipality of Balaguer coordinated with us regarding the time that architectural lamps were turned off, and the village of Àger allowed us to turn all street lighting off at a time of our choice.

Description: The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) performed a dual-phase scientific drilling project to investigate mountain-building processes called Collisional Orogeny in the Scandinavian Caledonides (COSC). The borehole COSC-1 was drilled through the Lower Seve Nappe, as the first of two 2.5 km deep drill holes close to Åre, central Sweden. The recovered rocks comprise a 1650 m thick suite of high grade gneisses and amphibolites with clear Seve Nappe affinities, while the lower 850 m comprise rather homogenous mylonitic gneisses with interfingered K-rich phyllonite bands of cm to several m size and some intercalated amphibolites. The different lithologies all crosscut the core in a subhorizontal direction with foliation of gneisses and phyllonites in the same direction. Albite and garnet porphyroblasts with pressure shadows show syn-deformational growth and the same sub-horizontal alignment. The focus of this thesis is to detect chemical and mineralogical differences in mylonitic and host rocks and to relate these differences to either metasomatism and deformation or inherited source rock variance. Another goal of this work is to compare chemical core scanning instruments. For this purpose two different μ-Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (μ-EDXRF), Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and hyperspectral imaging techniques served to measure seven samples from the lower 850 m of the COSC-1 core. The measurements reveal sharp borders between different rock types without indication of metasomatic changes, pointing to a heterogeneous protolith such as greywacke. Element and mineral maps show strong pervasive ductile deformation with mylonite recrystallization. The comparison of the scanning devices shows that the μ-EDXRF scanner with 50 μm resolution can be used perfectly for microstructural investigations and heavy element analysis. The XRF core scanner from AVAATECH is very useful and sufficiently precise for element profiles of line scans. The LIBS scanner is great to create distribution maps of elements from H to U with a resolution of 200 μm. The hyperspectral cameras are extremely fast in acquiring spectral mineral maps and structural information. However, several rock forming minerals in gneisses can currently not be identified and a calibration for metamorphic rocks is still needed.

Description: A temporary installation has been realized in the Netherlands, in the region of the Groningen gas field. The objective of this installation is to test the usage of a conventional array layout for detection of microseismicity. The region of the Groningen gas field is an excellent test ground, since the operating company NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij) installed a multitude of shallow borehole stations from 2014 to 2017, of which 65 – in addition to the already existing shallow borehole stations installed by KNMI (Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut) – were already online during the time of measurement, thus ensuring an earthquake catalogue that is complete down to low magnitudes during the time of array installation. The site for the installation was decided together with local parties involved in the seismicity monitoring, i.e. KNMI and NAM, and was located close to the village of Wittewierum. Stations were installed from the 12th of July 2016 to the 29th of August 2016 (49 days). The array was composed of 9 stations. The array was constructed in three concentric rings of 75 m, 150 m and 225 m diameter including a central station, but the geometry had to be adapted to the local conditions. Each station consisted of a broadband sensor (Trillium 120 s), an acquisition system (CUBE datalogger), a battery, and a GPS antenna. The entire system was installed at ~1 m depth (apart from GPS and transmission antennas), requiring only the digging of shallow holes, one for the installation of a thin concrete plate and the sensor, another one for a box containing the remaining instrumentation. The array stations recorded continuously with little outages; only station WAR1 stopped recording on the 22nd of August and station WAR7 stopped recording from 20th to 22nd of August. Waveform data is available from the GEOFON data centre, under network code 1C, and is fully open.

Description: The 2014 LoNNe (Loss of the Night Network) intercomparison campaign is the third of four campaigns planned during EU COST Action ES1204. This report provides a brief synopsis of the campaign and its preliminary outcomes. Section 2 describes the measurement locations, the activities of the participants, the instruments used, and the environmental conditions. Section 3 describes a public outreach event held during the campaign. Section 4 provides some preliminary results, outlines the ongoing analyses, and presents research questions for the next campaign to address. Section 5 provides recommendations for the final LoNNe intercomparison campaign in 2016. Section 6 concludes the report.

Description: The ability of any satellite gravity mission concept to monitor mass transport processes in the Earth system is typically tested well ahead of its implementation by means of various simulation studies. Those studies often extend from the simulation of realistic orbits and instrumental data all the way down to the retrieval of global gravity field solution time-series. Basic requirement for all these simulations are realistic representations of the spatio-temporal mass variability in the different sub-systems of the Earth, as a source model for the orbit computations. For such simulations, a suitable source model is required to represent (i) high-frequency (i.e., sub-daily to weekly) mass variability in the atmosphere and oceans, in order to realistically include the effects of temporal aliasing due to non-tidal high-frequency mass variability into the retrieved gravity fields. In parallel, (ii) low-frequency (i.e., monthly to interannual) variability needs to be modelled with realistic amplitudes, particularly at small spatial scales, in order to assess to what extent a new mission concept might provide further insight into physical processes currently not observable. The new source model documented here attempts to fulfil both requirements: Based on ECMWF’s recent atmospheric reanalysis ERA-Interim and corresponding simulations from numerical models of the other Earth system components, it offers spherical harmonic coefficients of the time-variable global gravity field due to mass variability in atmosphere, oceans, the terrestrial hydrosphere including the ice-sheets and glaciers, as well as the solid Earth. Simulated features range from sub-daily to multiyear periods with a spatial resolution of spherical harmonics degree and order 180 over a period of 12 years. In addition to the source model, a de-aliasing model for atmospheric and oceanic high-frequency variability with augmented systematic and random noise is required for a realistic simulation of the gravity field retrieval process, whose necessary error characteristics are discussed. The documentation is organized as follows: The characteristics of the updated ESM along with some basic validation are presented in Volume 1 of this report (Dobslaw et al., 2014). A detailed comparison to the original ESA ESM (Gruber et al., 2011) is provided in Volume 2 (Bergmann-Wolf et al., 2014), while Volume 3 (Forootan et al., 2014) contains a description of the strategy to derive a realistically noisy de-aliasing model for the high-frequency mass variability in atmosphere and oceans. The files of the updated ESA Earth System Model for gravity mission simulation studies are accessible at DOI:10.5880/GFZ.1.3.2014.001.

Description: SEGY and supplementary data of the seismic reflection experiment in the Baza Basin (Southern Spain). Presented are unstacked and unmigrated data of three 2D vibroseis profiles which were carried out in October 2013 and all corresponding raw data.

Description: This publication is a result of the 13th TRACE conference (Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology) organized by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews on May 6th – 10th, 2014 in Aviemore, Scotland, UK. [...]After review, 18 short papers are published in this volume, giving an overview of the wide spectrum of different fields covered at TRACE.

Description: The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) plays a significant role in the fields of airborne gravimetry. The objective of this thesis is to develop reliable GNSS algorithms and software for kinematic highly precise GNSS data analysis in airborne gravimetry.

Description: Raw-, SEG-Y and other supplementary data of the amphibious wide-angle seismic experiment carried out in South Turkey, Cyprus and south of Cyprus are presented. The aim of this project was to reveal the crustal structure of the Anatolian plateau, Cyprus and the Eratosthenes Seamount (ESM), south of Cyprus. Simultaneous data acquisition offshore with ocean bottom seismometers and airguns and onshore with seismic land stations and two land shots in South Turkey lead to a 650 km long amphibian seismic profile.

Description: This report as well as the associated data is a supplement to the publication Blöcher et al. (2015) accessible via DOI: 10.1016/j.geothermics.2015.07.008. From 2011-06-01 until 2013-12-31, the measurement and control system at the Groß Schönebeck research platform acquired data from several circulation experiments. Different data values were recorded at a sampling interval of 1 s. Relevant data for understanding and analyzing the hydraulic situation of the system were resampled to a 1 minute interval. From the resampled dataset, additional parameters were derived. Furthermore, if parameters were considered to be essential, but the measurement of these parameters was erroneous, some data were reprocessed. All relevant data and processing steps performed on the data are described within this report. Data described within this report can be accessed via DOI:10.5880/GFZ.b103-15021.1. The presented data was acquired during different research projects by the staff of the International Centre for Geothermal Research as well as Section 4.1 Reservoirtechnologies at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Description: Dieser Leitfaden entstand im dreijährigen Projekt „Konzeption und Erprobung von Modellen für forschungsnahe Transferstrukturen in der außeruniversitären Forschung“ – kurz TMod – auf Initiative von zwei Leibniz-Instituten und drei Helmholtz-Zentren unter Projektkoordination durch das Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam - Deutsches Geoforschungszentrum GFZ und unter Förderung durch das BMBF, wobei sich der Kreis der Projektpartner im Projektverlauf auf insgesamt neun Einrichtungen erweiterte. Die Beteiligten waren auf der Suche nach zeitgemäßen Instrumenten, mit denen die Ergebnisse und Leistungen ihrer Wissenschaftler effektiver zu echten Innovationen werden. Die unterschiedlichen Erfahrungen, die es bis dahin mit Ausgründungen zur Professionalisierung des Wissens- und Technologietransfers gab, waren sehr unterschiedlich und vorwiegend quantitativ abstrakt aufgearbeitet. Es gab daher gerade bei mittleren und kleinen außeruniversitären Forschungseinrichtungen einen Bedarf nach fundiertem und strukturiertem Anwendungswissen, um eine entsprechende Umstrukturierung zu erleichtern. Das Projekt TMod kam diesem Bedarf mit einer Analyse von Best Practices, der Klärung offener Fragestellungen und einer darauf aufbauenden individuellen Konzeptentwicklungs- und Umsetzungsunterstützung entgegen. Der so entstandene Leitfaden soll wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen, die Ihren Technologietransfer professionalisieren wollen, praktisch unterstützen und sie vom gewonnenen Wissen im Projekt TMod profitieren lassen.

Description: The acronym EMERALD was supposed to stand for ElectroMagnetic Equipment, Raw data And Locations Database. What survived over the years was the EMERALD processing, a set of computer programs to analyse MT time series data, and the EMERALD file format for storing MT data. This document describes the EMERALD file format and how to use it with the C++, C and FORTRAN programming languages. Interface functions also exist for Matlab and Powershell but they are not described here. EMERALD data files typically come in pairs of two files with the same name but differing file name extensions, sometimes called RAW and XTR files. XTR (extract) files are plain ASCII files, which can be read and modified with text editors. RAW files or more generally, EMERALD ‐type data files are in most cases binary and used to store all kind of magnetotelluric (MT) data such as time series, cross‐ and auto spectra and calibration data. The EMERALD ‐type data files store any number of channels of data in matrix form, but do not contain any description of the data. This information is stored in the according XTR file. In 2015 the original XTR files were replaced by a modernized version based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML). The new files have the extension .XTRX.

Description: The sources for the magnetotelluric method are naturally occurring electromagnetic field variations. Electromagnetic currents are excited over a wide frequency range in the earth’s ionosphere by solar activity and global lighting discharges. While these source are available everywhere on earth and at all times, their signal strength varies considerably. The so-called remote-reference technique is an effective way to improve magnetotelluric data quality by referencing the electromagnetic fields recorded at a local site to simultaneously recorded, undisturbed fields at a remote site. The remote reference approach has become standard for magnetotelluric field work, particularly in areas with high levels of man-made electromagnetic noise; i.e. almost everywhere in central Europe. Identifying a suitable location for a clean remote site is difficult and time-consuming. Maintaining such a site in addition to normal field operations is expensive and logistically challenging. A permanently installed reference station simplifies MT measurements considerably. The radius for which source fields are coherent depends mostly on the frequency content of the signals and the latitude of observations. According to our own tests, signals are coherent at frequencies of up to 10 kHz over distances of 1000 km. After a reconnaissance operation during which several locations all over Germany were tested, we could eventually identify an urban forest near the town of Wittstock in northern Germany as a suitable location for a reference station. A preliminary installation of the reference station was accomplished by mid-2010. The permanent installation in a wooden hut and operating with a range of sensors and sampling rates is available since November 2010. Meanwhile the data of the Wittstock site have been used very successfully to re-process a number of magnetotelluric stations in Germany. This report describes the installation, the type of sensors and the recorded data sets, which are freely available on request. For updated material, please refer to our webpages (http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/section/geophysical-deep-sounding/servicesinfrastructure/geophysical-instrument-pool-potsdam-gipp/archive/mt-reference-site/)

Description: The ability of any satellite gravity mission concept to monitor mass transport processes in the Earth system is typically tested well ahead of its implementation by means of various simulation studies. Those studies often extend from the simulation of realistic orbits and instrumental data all the way down to the retrieval of global gravity field solution time-series. Basic requirement for all these simulations are realistic representations of the spatio-temporal mass variability in the different sub-systems of the Earth, as a source model for the orbit computations. For such simulations, a suitable source model is required to represent (i) high-frequency (i.e., subdaily to weekly) mass variability in the atmosphere and oceans, in order to realistically include the effects of temporal aliasing due to non-tidal high-frequency mass variability into the retrieved gravity fields. In parallel, (ii) low-frequency (i.e., monthly to interannual) variability needs to be modelled with realistic amplitudes, particularly at small spatial scales, in order to assess to what extent a new mission concept might provide further insight into physical processes currently not observable. The new source model documented here attempts to fulfil both requirements: Based on ECMWF’s recent atmospheric reanalysis ERA-Interim and corresponding simulations from numerical models of the other Earth system components, it offers spherical harmonic coefficients of the time-variable global gravity field due to mass variability in atmosphere, oceans, the terrestrial hydrosphere including the ice-sheets and glaciers, as well as the solid Earth. Simulated features range from sub-daily to multiyear periods with a spatial resolution of spherical harmonics degree and order 180 over a period of 12 years. In addition to the source model, a de-aliasing model for atmospheric and oceanic high-frequency variability with augmented systematic and random noise is required for a realistic simulation of the gravity field retrieval process, whose necessary error characteristics are discussed. The documentation of the updated ESA Earth System Model (updated ESM) for gravity mission simulation studies is organized as follows: The characteristics of the updated ESM along with some basic validation is presented in Volume 1. A detailed comparison to the original ESA ESM (Gruber et al., 2011) is provided in Volume 2, while Volume 3 contains the description of a strategy to derive realistic errors for the de-aliasing model of high-frequency mass variability in atmosphere and ocean.

Description: The integrated plate boundary in Chile (IPOC) combines 15 broadband stations with strong-motion sensors, GPS, strain sensors and magneto-telluric stations. The Chilean subduction zone setting provides a high background rate of seismicity (crustal, intermediate depth, and plate interface) in a region with exceptionally low ambient noise, particularly at higher frequencies. We have deployed seismic mini-arrays in the vicinity of IPOC stations PB02 and PB07, and installed a third array to the east of these stations near the village of Quillagua, such that all three arrays form a triangle. Each array has 10 elements and an aperture in the km range. The study area lies just to the north of the northern boundary of the rupture area of the Tocopilla earthquake of 2007 Mw=7.7) and just above or slightly to the east of the downdip limit of plate interface seismicity. Installing the mini-arrays in the area of the existing IPOC has the following advantages: • Independent knowledge of background structure and seismicity from existing and ongoing studies. • Should any transients or other unusual signals be found in the array data, we can look for anomalous signals in geodetic and MT recordings, which will help to narrow down possible underlying mechanisms.

Description: Passive continental margins offer the unique opportunity to study the processes involved in continental extension and break up as well as the role of hot-spot related magmatism. We conducted combined on- and offshore seismic experiments in Northern Namibia designed to characterize the Southern African passive margin at the interaction with the Walvis Ridge, to assess the interaction of the presumed plume with continental lithosphere and to determine the deep structure of the transition from the coastal fold belt to the stable craton, where the Walvis Ridge hits the African continent. The seismic project integrated three experiments, (A) an onshore, coast-parallel refraction seismic profile, (B) two onshore-offshore wide-angle seismic transects, and (C) a combined on- and offshore seismic experiment to image the sub-Moho velocity (Pn tomography) at the ocean-continent transition (Fig. 1). The knowledge of the lithospheric structure of the margin together with results from other geoscientific studies (e.g., conducted within the SPPSAMPLE, DFG Priority Program 1375, South Atlantic Margin Processes and Links with onshore Evolution) will help to address fundamental questions such as, how continental crust and plume head interact, what the extent and volumes of magmatic underplating is, and how and which inherited (continental) structures might have been involved and utilized in the break-up process.

Description: This publication is a result of the 12th TRACE conference (Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology) organized by the Department of Agriculture, Forests, Nature and Energy (DAFNE) of the Università della Tuscia (Viterbo, Italy) on May 08th – 11th 2013 in Viterbo, Italy. [...] A total of 20 manuscripts were submitted. After review 19 short papers are published in this volume, giving an overview of the wide spectrum of fields in tree-ring research.

Description: The ability of any satellite gravity mission concept to monitor mass transport processes in the Earth system is typically tested well ahead of its implementation by means of various simulation studies. Those studies often extend from the simulation of realistic orbits and instrumental data all the way down to the retrieval of global gravity field solution time-series. Basic requirement for all these simulations are realistic representations of the spatio-temporal mass variability in the different sub-systems of the Earth, as a source model for the orbit computations. For such simulations, a suitable source model is required to represent (i) high-frequency (i.e., sub-daily to weekly) mass variability in the atmosphere and oceans, in order to realistically include the effects of temporal aliasing due to non-tidal high-frequency mass variability into the retrieved gravity fields. In parallel, (ii) low-frequency (i.e., monthly to interannual) variability needs to be modelled with realistic amplitudes, particularly at small spatial scales, in order to assess to what extent a new mission concept might provide further insight into physical processes currently not observable. The new source model documented here attempts to fulfil both requirements: Based on ECMWF’s recent atmospheric reanalysis ERA-Interim and corresponding simulations from numerical models of the other Earth system components, it offers spherical harmonic coefficients of the time-variable global gravity field due to mass variability in atmosphere, oceans, the terrestrial hydrosphere including the ice-sheets and glaciers, as well as the solid Earth. Simulated features range from sub-daily to multiyear periods with a spatial resolution of spherical harmonics degree and order 180 over a period of 12 years. In addition to the source model, a de-aliasing model for atmospheric and oceanic high-frequency variability with augmented systematic and random noise is required for a realistic simulation of the gravity field retrieval process, whose necessary error characteristics are discussed. The documentation is organized as follows: The characteristics of the updated ESM along with some basic validation are presented in Volume 1 of this report (Dobslaw et al., 2014). A detailed comparison to the original ESA ESM (Gruber et al., 2011) is provided in Volume 2 (Bergmann-Wolf et al., 2014), while Volume 3 (Forootan et al., 2014) contains a description of the strategy to derive a realistically noisy de-aliasing model for the high-frequency mass variability in atmosphere and oceans. The files of the updated ESA Earth System Model for gravity mission simulation studies are accessible at DOI:10.5880/GFZ.1.3.2014.001.

Description: Beneath the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains an earthquake zone is observed in 80 to 300 km depth. It resembles in form and intensity the intermediate depth seismicity in subduction zones, here lithosphere is recycled in the Earth’s mantle. The fundamental tectonic concept of subduction is well established for convergent margins including an oceanic plate. The Pamir, however, is situated in an intra-continental setting and is formed during a continent-continent collision. This thesis aims to contribute to the investigation of the active tectonic process underlying the local occurrence of the seismicity in upper mantle depths. The field experiment for this study was performed in the framework of the multidisciplinary TIPAGE project from 2008 to 2010 and included large parts of the Pamir, the adjacent Tajik Depression and the Southern Tien Shan. The receiver function technique was applied to detect and locate seismic discontinuities in the subsurface in order to perform seismic imaging. The results clearly attest to an intra-continental subduction. Beneath the Pamir, the subducting plate is of Eurasian provenance. A southerly dipping 10 to 15 km thick low velocity zone could be resolved along a north-south profile in the eastern Pamir framing the earthquake zone in the upper mantle. This low velocity zone appears to be connected to the lower crust north of the seismic zone indicating subduction of crustal material in north to south direction. West of this north-south profile the zone of intermediate depth seismicity describes an arc changing its strike from east-west beneath the eastern Pamir to north-south beneath the western Pamir. Thereby the dipping direction of the slab changes from due south to due east. The geometry of this slab is confirmed by various receiver function cross sections. Towards western direction the subducted slab is connected to the crust of the Tajik Depression, indicating that the slab is the western extension of the Tajik Depression plate. Since the crustal thickness of the Tajik Depression is determined to at least 40 km, a continental composition for the crust of the Tajik Depression is inferred even though its underlying mantle lithosphere appears to be thin. The crustal thickness is mapped for the whole region. The resulting Moho map shows a 65 to 75 km thick crust in the Pamir and a 40 to 45 km thick crust in the surrounding basins. The arcuate subduction of the Tajik Depression plate and its eastern extension is reflected by characteristic Moho depth anomalies along the arc.

Description: This Scientific Technical Report presents two so-called “Reference reports” produced during the MATRIX project. These reports were provided to the European Commission asdeliverables, namely D8.4 “MATRIX Results I and Reference Report” and D8.5 “MATRIX Results II and Reference Report”. D8.4 presented a series of specific reports outlining theresults of the project, written in a manner accessible not only to the specialist but with a broader audience in mind. D8.5 deals with the risk governance within a multi-hazard and risk context and has since been published. We therefore divide with document in two, where part1 represented the outcomes presented in D8.4 while D8.5 forms part 2.

Description: An integrated geological and geophysical approach was applied to comprehend the tectonic setting and seismic structure of the North Tapanuli district (North Sumatra Indonesia) where several geothermal manifestations are located. For the first time, passive seismic methods are used as a geothermal exploration tool in Indonesia. The specific aims of the seismological study are to provide Vp, Vp/Vs, and seismic attenuation images as well as the detailed fault structure of the region derived from seismicity and focal mechanism analysis. A seismic network of 42 short period instruments was installed in the region covering the Tarutung (in the north) and the Sarulla basin (in the south) for 10 months starting from May 2011. The seismic arrivals were detected by using an optimized automatic earthquake detection approach. The earthquakes were then localized by using HYPO71 with a 1D velocity model. In order to increase the picking accuracy, the seismic onsets were revised manually and the earthquakes were relocated by using the same procedure.

Description: This study represents the first investigating potential kinematic boundary conditions for subduction erosion in a systematic manner. For the subduction erosional process, the aperture at the box's rear, which allowed rearward material loss, was shown to have the largest influence on obtained results. If the amount of material leaving the system was larger than the amount of material subducted at the wedge's toe, the margin evolved as erosional. We found the surface slope to be the second important parameter, which strongly controls the amount of basally eroded material.

Description: This document serves as a record of the processing standards, models & parameters adopted for the generation of monthly and weekly (aligned to GPS weeks) Level-2 gravity field data products by the GRACE Science Data System component at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Description: SEG-Y data of small-scale high-resolution controlled-source seismic experiment to investigate the mesoscopic fault structure of the Wadi Arava fault, Dead Sea Transform.

Description: In order to analyze mineralogical-geochemical changes occurring in whole rock reservoir samples (Stuttgart Formation) from the Ketzin pilot CO2 storage site, Brandenburg/Germany as well as to investigate single fluid-mineral reactions laboratory experiments and geochemical modeling were performed. The whole rock core samples of the Stuttgart Formation were exposed to synthetic brine and pure CO2 at experimental P-T conditions and run durations of 5.5 MPa/40 °C/40 months for sandstone and 7.5 MPa/40 °C/6 months for siltstone, respectively. Mineralogical changes in both sets of experiments are generally minor making it difficult to differentiate the natural variability of the whole rock samples from CO2-induced alterations. Results of sandstone experiments suggest dissolution of analcime, anhydrite, the anorthite component of plagioclase, chlorite + biotite, hematite and K-feldspar. Dissolution of anhydrite, the anorthite component of plagioclase and K-feldspar is also observed in siltstone experiments. During equilibrium simulations best matching models were ranked based on a mathematical statistical dispersion relation. The best matching model comprises a mineral combination of the albite component of plagioclase, anhydrite, dolomite, hematite, and illite. The equilibrium modeling showed that it is difficult to match K+, Fe2+ and SO4 2- brine concentrations simultaneously. The best matching subsets of the equilibrium models were finally run including kinetic rate laws. These kinetic simulations reveal that experimentally determined brine data was well matched, but reactions involving K+ and Fe2+ were not completely covered. Generally larger mismatches for dissolved Al3+ and Si4+ in all the completed simulations are most likely related to the sampling strategy and respective inaccuracies in the measured concentrations of dissolved Al3+ and Si4+. The kinetic simulation suppressing mineral precipitation yields best matches with experimental observations. The modeling shows acceptably well matches with measured brine ion concentrations, and the modeling results identified primary minerals as well as key chemical processes. It was also shown that the modeling approach is not capable of completely covering complex natural systems. Experiments on mineral separates were conducted with 2 M NaCl brine and pure CO2 using siderite, illite and labradorite samples. Experimental P-T conditions were 20 (30) MPa and 80 °C; run durations were one (siderite), two (illite) and three weeks (labradorite), respectively. Based on the acquired set of mineralogical-geochemical data the distinct experiments show: (i) dissolution of ankerite and stable siderite, which is therefore interpreted to be a potential CO2 trapping phase, (ii) preferred dissolution of the Ca-smectite component out of the illite-smectite mixed-layer mineral and (iii) dissolution of labradorite, respectively. No mineral precipitates (e.g. carbonate phases) were detected in any of the conducted laboratory experiments, and only one single kinetic simulation predicts the formation of minute amounts of dolomite. Based on the data acquired during this dissertation the mineralogical-geochemical effects of CO2 are minor, and the (chemical) integrity of the Ketzin reservoir system is not significantly affected by injected CO2.

Description: Reinsch et al. (2013) describe the installation of a novel fibre optic cable behind the anchor casing of the geothermal well HE-53, Hellisheiði geothermal field, SW Iceland. Within this data publication, DTS temperature data, acquired together with optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) data during three different field campaigns are presented. Data have been acquired during the installation in spring 2009, during the onset of a production test in summer 2009 and after a 8.5 month shut-in period in summer 2010.

Description: We recover coseismic static surface deformation by double integration of strong motion accelerometric data. Compared to GPS measurement, the advantage of strong motion data is that they have the potential to provide real-time coseismic static displacements. Strong motion data, however, has the classic problem of baseline offsets which produce unrealistic displacements after double integration is applied. We adopted a bilinear line fitting of empirical baseline correction method to overcome such problem. We investigate the improvement methods of baseline correction that constrain the maximum flatness of the displacement trace and use the cumulative energy ratio as a threshold. We apply the methods to data sets of the 2003, Mw 8.3 Tokachi-Oki earthquake, the 2007, Mw 7.7 Tocopilla earthquake, the 2010, Mw 7.8 Mentawai earthquake and the 2011, Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake. We show that, in general, the results of strong motion derived displacements are comparable to nearby GPS data for most data sets, although for far-field data the method may lead to poor results. It confirms that cumulative energy ratio is appropriate to be used as a threshold of baseline correction method. The very large and very good quality of boreholes strong motion data of the Tohoku earthquake gives opportunity to investigate the method deeply. We analyze the dependency of the method on hypocenter distance, magnitude and rupture model of the earthquake. We found that the method has a strong dependency on the given parameters, particularly on hypocenter distance. We also show that the method should be distinguished for horizontal and vertical components. Using our improvement method in this study, the deviations of vector length between strong motion derived displacements and nearby GPS data either for horizontal or vertical components, are significantly minimized. Further study, we optimize the use of valuable rapid static displacement data obtained from strong motion or GPS near-source station. We introduce a centroid grid search method to calculate the moment magnitude by using Okada (1985) model. Our method calculates reasonable moment magnitude using data even only from single station. This method can be done very rapidly within about 5 minutes. It provides crucial information e.g. for making tsunami warning decision.

Description: [...] The approach followed in this study is based on the detailed analyses of the relationships between thermal conductivity of rock-forming minerals, which are most abundant in sedimentary rocks, and the properties measured by standard logging tools (i.e., gamma ray, density, sonic interval transit time, hydrogen index, and photoelectric factor). By using multivariate statistics separately for clastic, carbonate and evaporite rocks, the findings from these analyses allow the development of prediction equations from large artificial data sets that predict matrix thermal conductivity within an error of 4 to 11%, without being affected by the limitations mentioned above.

Description: The intention of this article is to present the definitions of different functionals of the Earth’s gravity field and possibilities for their approximative calculation from a mathematical representation of the outer potential.

Description: Within this thesis, passive seismic data collected during the two-year TIPAGE deployment in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan from 2008 to 2010, are analyzed. This is the first modern digital seismological dataset for this politically unstable region, all previous studies either relied on globally recorded data or some short-term deployments of analog stations in Afghanistan during the late 1960s and 70s. Modern seismological techniques applied to the collected digital seismic data provide a wealth of new constraints on regional crustal and sub-crustal structure, leading to a better understanding of active tectonic processes.

Description: For the present work we carry out our research with two objectives : (A) Constructing a high resolution three-dimensional velocity model of the upper mantle. (B) Probing convection and deformation of the mantle through analysis of seismic anisotropy. In our study we determine the three dimensional Sv wave speed and the azimuthal anisotropy model by analyzing vertical component multimode Rayleigh wave seismograms. We use data of broadband stations within and around China. We construct the three dimensional model using a two step procedure.

Description: Film 6: "Scientific Drilling at the pilot site Ketzin" (Length 08:53) "At the pilot site Ketzin three wells were drilled to depths of 750 to 810 meters in 2007 before the start of CO2 injection ..." In 2011 a fourth, and 2012, the fifth well was constructed. This last well (Ktzi 203) for the first time offers the unique opportunity to gain samples (cores) from a storage reservoir that have been exposed to CO2 for more than four years. How were these samples (cores) gained and studied? Production Year: 2012

Description: The goal of this thesis is to close these gaps (exclude aliasing effect, improve the sensitivity towards short period waves and increase the resolution of the results) and prove, that the RO technique is a powerful tool to derive high resolution global results of absolute momentum flux.

Description: This publication is a result of the 11th TRACE conference (Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology) organized by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI), Berlin and the Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems, Eberswalde, on May 08th – 12th 2012 in Potsdam and Eberswalde, Germany. [...] After review 25 short papers are published in this volume giving an overview of the wide spectrum of fields in tree-ring research.

Description: [...] In this thesis it is shown that the epoch-differenced ionospheric delay correction is sufficient for estimating the tropospheric delay, e.g., the Zenith Total Delay (ZTD), from SF GPS data. Based on this result, the Satellite-specific Epoch-differenced Ionospheric Delay model (SEID) was developed. In the SEID model the ionospheric corrections for SF data are generated from the observations of surrounding reference stations equipped with DF receivers. With the derived ionospheric corrections and the SF data, pseudo L2 data are generated, which can be processed using existing GPS processing software packages without any changes. [...]

Description: The guidebook contains a thematic description an background information for each field day. The overall setting and development of the Saxo-Thuringian zone within the Variscan orogen is presented in Kroner and Romer (2010). This material is not included in this guide book (because of copyright reasons) and will be handed out to field trip participants as separate handout.

Description: Film 2: "Geological Conditions and Capacities" (Length 06:00) "Porous rocks with good permeability have, in Germany and world-wide, the highest potential for geological CO2 storage. ..." Where do these rocks occur? And which further criteria need potential CO2 storage sites to meet? Production Year: 2010-2012

Description: Film 5: "Ketzin Pilot Site" (Length 05:05) "At the Ketzin pilot site in Brandenburg, Germany, CO2 has been injected into an underground storage formation since June, 2008. ...". The monitoring methods used at the pilot site Ketzin are among the most comprehensive in the field of CO2 storage worldwide. Important is the combination of different monitoring methods, each with different temporal and spatial resolutions. Which methods are used? And what have we already learned? Production Year: 2011-2012

Description: The present study investigates the effects of fluid-rock interactions on permeability and the related transport property electrical conductivity of rocks in the context of geothermal energy production from deep sedimentary reservoirs that exist, e.g., in the North German Basin.

Description: This report continues a series of Scientific Technical Reports, in which the theoretical description of the electromagnetic (EM, see Hagedoorn & Greiner-Mai, 2008), topographic (TOP, see Greiner-Mai & Hagedoorn, 2008) and gravitational (GRAV, see Hagedoorn et al., 2012) core-mantle coupling torques are presented in detail. Based on these theoretical descriptions numerical codes were developed to compute individual coupling torques.

Description: In this thesis I focus on the North Alpine pro‐wedge and scrutinize the potential driving forces of tectonic activity. The key questions I try to answer are: - Is it possible to constrain further the timing and amount of deformation (i.e. shortening) in the foreland fold and thrust belt of the European Alps, in particular in Late Neogene times? - What does this timing and magnitude of deformation tell us about the kinematics of late stage exhumation and the relation between the Alps and their foreland? - Can we evaluate the influence of climate (or climate changes) on timing and magnitude of deformation within the foreland fold and thrust belt? To address these questions, I combine low temperature thermochronology (in particular apatite fission track and apatite (U‐Th‐Sm)/He dating) with critical taper analysis and try to extrapolate the present day kinematic situation into the past; thus providing an instrument to understand wedge dynamics through time.

Description: This thesis is organized as a “cumulative thesis” and consists of a series of six chapters (without references and appendix). Chapters 2-5 consist of four individual manuscripts to be published in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. Two manuscripts (chapters 3 and 4) have been already accepted while the other two manuscripts (chapters 2 and 5) have been either submitted or are supposed to be submitted. An outline of each chapter and the contributions of the individual coauthors are provided below. The structure of the thesis (chapter 2-5) is arranged in terms of sample resolution. Chapter 2 focuses on data in monthly resolution via a monthly cleared sediment trap. Chapter 3 is based on annual resolutions, while chapter 4 and 5 discuss data at decadal resolution. Presenting data on different time scales improves the integration of seasonal information in data at millennial time scale and, thus the understanding of seasonal climatic related questions such as seasonality extremes.

Description: It is of high interest to know the magnetic field, measured at the earth surface or by satellites, in the earth deep interior, especially at the core-mantle boundary (CMB). This knowledge is of relevance for the determination of fluid motions at the top of the outer core, the estimation of diffusion and the geomagnetic spectrum, as well as in calculations of the electromagnetic core-mantle coupling torques or in studying the behaviour of geomagnetic jerk components near the CMB. The presented procedure of nonharmonic downward continuation (NHDC) is a strong theoretical method, an illposed inverse initial boundary value problem, which determines the given outer geomagnetic field or the secular variation in the deep earth interior. It accounts for a prescribed mantle conductivity model depending on the radius. Boundary values are given only on one, the upper (outer) side of the radial interval. We discuss the theoretical background of the method, referring to the intensively investigated inverse heat conduction problem in the field of parabolic differential equations, and adapt it to the geomagnetic downward continuation problem. Some historical remarks on the early trials in developing this method around the year 1980 are outlined. After investigating the limited possibilities for analytical solutions, we present the numerical algorithm, which uses the integral equation approach, combined with a special regularization variant. It can be implemented on the basis of finite differences or the finite-element technique. This algorithm enables simulations setting up simple function types (e.g. oscillations, time polynomials). In addition, approximative approaches help to reveal the analytical dependence of the solution on the conductivity function, e.g. its impact on the phase shifts or time shifts, which are different for radial and tangential magnetic field components. A couple of new applications are addressed, e.g. to check the divergence condition for the magnetic field at the CMB and the way to make diffusion studies near the CMB. On the basis of NHDC, we derive a new formula for the geomagnetic spectrum at the CMB, which shows in its approximated form the influence of the mantle conductivity model. Finally, some remarks on future possibilities in the field of geomagnetic downward continuation are added.

Description: [...] A new aspect in this study is the influence of wind-driven waves, sea-ice and icebergs on long-term observation of the Arctic Ocean. An altimetric method is developed, that is applied reliably under these influences. [...]

Description: The 10th TRACE conference (Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology) was organized by the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) - Centre d'Orléans Unité Amélioration, Génétique et Physiologie Forestières, on May 11th – 14th 2011 in the “Muséum des Sciences Naturelles” in Orléans, France. [...] This volume of TRACE Proceedings contains 16 short papers and gives an overview of the wide spectrum of fields in tree-ring research.

Description: The 9th TRACE conference (Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology) was organized by the Institute for Forest Growth, University of Freiburg, on April 22nd – 25th 2010 in Freiburg, Germany. [...] This volume of TRACE Proceedings contains 26 short papers and gives an overview of the wide spectrum of fields in tree-ring research.

Description: This thesis summarizes the results of the WSM project’s second phase (1996‐2008). In particular it presents the major achievements that have been accomplished with the WSM 2008 database release that has been compiled under the guidance of the author. Furthermore, the thesis briefly presents three of the author’s numerical models that aim at quantification the temporal changes of the crustal stress field.

Description: [...] In context of this work, a new damage mechanism is proposed: the mechanically induced fracture face skin. This new mechanism results from mechanical interactions between the proppants and the reservoir rock, due to the increasing stress on the rock-proppant system during production. Proppant embedment into the fracture face and proppant crushing leads to fines production and can impair the fracture performance. In order to achieve sustainable, longterm productivity from a reservoir, it is indispensable to understand the hydraulic and mechanical interactions in the rock-proppant system. In order to analyse the hydraulic and mechanical interactions, laboratory experiments using three different flow cells were conducted. These flow cells were used to localise and quantify the mechanical damage at the fracture face, as well as to investigate the long-term stability of a rock-proppant system under in-situ reservoir conditions. [...]

Description: This short report describes the first attempt at obtaining a preliminary cross-border risk model for Central Asia starting from datasets that were already available at the beginning of the EMCA Project.

Description: The magnetic field of the Earth varies in space and time. Geomagnetism as research area that aims to describe and understand the sources of these variations is supported by two pillars: first, regular high-precision measurements in the global network of magnetic observatories and repeat stations are necessary to register the field and its variations at all. Second, mathematical methods are required in order to extract magnetic field models from this large data set. Methods applied to data offer insights in the mechanisms generating the magnetic field. This thesis covers both subjects. In a first part, following the description of the state of the art in observatory instrumentation, I explain in detail two instruments that have the potential to streamline the classical procedures: The Geomagnetic AUtomated SyStem GAUSS paves the way to automated absolute measurements, up to now only possible manually. The newly developed DI3 technique improves and simplies the standard manual measurements signicantly and thus reduces the requirements placed on observers. The second part deals with the mathematical tools available for geomagnetic field modelling. I focus on harmonic splines that can be derived from the classical approach of spherical harmonics. These base functions are interpolatory and have a localised shape while satisfying Laplaces equation. Hence, they are applicable to fit data regionally or globally. The harmonic splines are used with a data set made of repeat station and observatory measurements from Southern Africa. This region is of special interest because the field intensity is very low and and both spatial and temporal field gradients exist. Subdivided into an analysis of ancient (years 1961-2001) and recent (2005-2009) data, two continuous regional field models SAMS and X-SAMS are derived. From the analysis of the field models, a better understanding of the field behaviour is gained. Finally, the harmonic splines are used in a case study on globally distributed secular variation data. Rotating the data set in a system of coordinates aligned with the dipole axis and modelling it with the harmonic splines reveals the external origin of observed fast variations.

Description: [...] In this thesis, data from seismic and infrasound stations were analyzed in order to see effects of tsunamis of the great Sumatra-Andaman 2004 and Tohuku-Oki 2011 earthquakes. Data used are from seismic stations of the Global Seismic Network (GSN) around the Indian and Pacific oceans and from infrasound stations of the International Monitoring System of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (IMS/CTBTO). In both data sets, seismic and infrasound, tsunami signals are observed in the period range of 500to2000s. These data may add to two new very useful observables for tsunami early warning systems. [...]

Description: The present work tries to condense the state‐of‐the‐art for the exploration and exploitation of geothermal energy. Although a lot of experiences from different sites worldwide are integrated in this study, some sections do reflect the German experience. For example, the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG, see page 78) enables also a specific promotion and growth of the geothermal sector in Germany by guaranteeing special feed‐in tariffs for a 20‐years period. During the last years, several countries worldwide have introduced similar renewable energy promotion policies (some of them restricted to certain energy sources only or requiring a certain renewable energy quote), supporting investigations also in geothermal applications. Thus, the experiences in Germany may be of some value. Dependent on the political‐economical framework, the geothermal exploration and exploitation of deeper reservoirs represents an excellent option to extend geothermal applications also in areas where shallow geothermal reservoirs may not be able to match the local energy demand. Therefore, also challenges related to the exploration and exploitation of deep low‐permeability reservoirs are included in this study.

Description: [...] In order to construct the 3D structural model of the Norwegian continental margin, all mentioned datasets were compiled and gridded separately for each layer. The gridded data were merged into the 3D structural model and, therefore, all obtained thickness maps and structural depth maps are spatially consistent in 3D.

Description: Megacities as challenge for interdisciplinary research: the "Risk Habitat Megacity" research initiative / Dirk Heinrichs, Kerstin Krellenberg. - Mega-urban societies at risk / Frauke Kraas, Carsten Butsch. - Megacity Istanbul: earthquake risk and early warning in a megacity / Stefano Parolai, Jochen Zschau, Claus Milkereit, Matteo Picozzi, Angelo Strollo. - Neapel in der Zange / Thomas Walter

Description: The theme of this thesis is to investigate the sensitivity of several different formations of future satellite gravity missions. The work has three main aspects. The first, and the most important, is the development and testing of a global directional wavelet transformation as a mathematical tool to analyse sensitivity of satellite gravity mission. This is done by propagating full covariance matrices w.r.t. the spherical harmonics functions onto the directional wavelet transform. For the first time, we are able to accurately quantify the stripes that are typical for the error pattern of the GRACE gravity mission. The second aspect is the simulation of a satellite gravity formation, in order to achieve accuracy information in the form of a full covariance matrix. The third aspect involves analyzing results from the GRACE mission, which is already in orbit and has been delivering data since 2002. We compare the simulations of GRACE to the data delivered by the GRACE mission. This way, we are able to establish a relationship between the simulations and real-life data and evaluate the quality of the simulations.

Description: The seismicity data file used for this study is represented by the earthquake catalogue CENEC for Europe north of 44°N (Grünthal et al. 2009a). This paper describes in detail how this homogeneous data file in terms of moment magnitudes Mw (with Mw greater than 3.5) has been derived. The degree of harmonization achieved in CENEC is quantitatively analysed in Grünthal et al. (2009b).

Description: This volume contains 23 short papers which summarise the main subjects of talks and posters presented at the eighth TRACE (Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology) conference organized by Jožica Gričar, Tom Levanič, Špela Jagodic, Robert Krajnc and Polona Hafner and held in Otočec, Slovenia on April 16th - 19th, 2009.

Description: The ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere stretching from a height of about 60 km to more than 1 000 km. A certain fraction of the gas particles in that region is ionised by solar extreme ultra violet radiation. Since electromagnetic waves are influenced and significantly modified by ionospheric free charge carriers, the altitude range is of great scientific interest. GPS satellites emit electromagnetic waves on L – band frequencies travelling through the ionosphere and lower neutral atmosphere. Subsequently, they are received by low–Earth orbiting satellites. Consequently, the signals are affected by strong electron density gradients at altitudes above approximately 80km and by atmospheric density, pressure and water vapour content in the troposphere and stratosphere. This measurement method is termed radio occultation technique and it allows to receive a global picture of ionospheric and lower neutral atmospheric conditions. This study focusses on the detection and analysis of sporadic E layers from GPS radio occultation measurements on a global scale. Sporadic E layers are localised patches of relatively high electron density appearing in the E region of the ionosphere. They are represented in GPS signals as intense fluctuations. This work reveals that global sporadic E occurrence rates underlie variations on different time scales. It is demonstrated that the sporadic E occurrence depends on several geophysical parameters and it is subject to coupling processes between the neutral atmosphere and ionosphere. For example, the global sporadic E occurrence is oriented along Earth’s magnetic field. It is shown additionally that sporadic E altitudes are subject to tidal winds and that its annual cycle varies with meteor influx.

Description: The focal point of my thesis is the extraction of climatic signals archived in stalagmites from NE India. High uranium concentration in the stalagmites ensured excellent age control required for successful high-resolution climate reconstructions. Stable isotope (δ18O and δ13C) and grey-scale data allow unprecedented insights into millennial to seasonal dynamics of the summer and winter monsoon in NE India.

Description: HALO_GPS is a precise GPS kinematic positioning software. It was developed at GFZ Potsdam for the German HALO project. The goal is to develop a software which is able to achieve cm-level accuracy for an aircraft trajectory for application in airborne gravimetry.

Description: Against the background of EnMAP preparation analyses have been carried out on the status of research in various areas of hyperspectral remote sensing for the use of existing algorithms in the EnMAP application box. The aim was to compose the status of research in Germany and internationally. Therefore, in various fields of expertise applied and accordingly available algorithms and products based on hyperspectral data has been evaluated and documented. The intention has been to demonstrate and to evaluate the added value of hyperspectral remote sensing to multispectral methods for each product. For this purpose analyses have been carried out by different research groups which were based on the specialty and the experience of each group. Hereby a summary was created of each major application perspective and the relevant remote sensing derived variables and significant processing algorithms (state-of-the-art) belonging to this context. Based on this, the research delivers, as a result, a recommendation which of the algorithms should be implemented into the Applikationsbox of EnMAP. Tests of the algorithms or their implementation were not part of the analyses. However, notes have been given on what algorithms should be tested in the context of a detailed preparation phase. An assessment to the further R & D requirements in the development of algorithms has been made on this basis.

Description: In my thesis, I studied marine and lacustrine sediment cores from different depositional provinces along the south-central Chilean margin with the overall objective to identify their records of paleoclimate and paleotectonics. First of all, I investigated sedimentary sequences that were recovered within the margin-parallel trench system (cp. Figure 1.2) and hence constitute long-term recorders [...] of the sediment transport between the continent and the abyssal zone of the lower plate.

Description: This volume contains 30 short papers which summarise the main subjects of talks and posters presented at the seventh TRACE (Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology) conference organized by Ireneusz Malik, Ryszard J. Kaczka and Piotr Owczarek and held in Zakopane, Poland on April 27th - 30th, 2008.

Description: The intention of this article is to present the definitions of different functionals of the Earth's gravity field and possibilities for their approximative calculation from a mathematical representation of the outer potential. [...] More or less, what is compiled here is well-known in physical geodesy but distributed over a lot of articles and books which are not cited here. In the first instance this text is targeted at non-geodesists and it should be "stand-alone readable".

Description: The paper consists of two main elements: (1) the creation of a harmonized seismicity data file for the eastern Mediterranean area and the generation of a classical timeindependent PSHA, and (2) the extension of the earthquake model of the timeindependent approach to a newly developed time‐dependent PSHA and the comparison with the results of (1).

Description: This thesis presents investigations on sediments from two African lakes which have been recording changes in their surrounding environmental and climate conditions since more than 200,000 years. Focus of this work is the time of the last Glacial and the Holocene (the last ~100,000 years before present [in the following 100 kyr BP]). One important precondition for this kind of research is a good understanding of the present ecosystems in and around the lakes and of the sediment formation under modern climate conditions. Both studies therefore include investigations on the modern environment (including organisms, soils, rocks, lake water and sediments).

Description: [...] According to the results of this thesis the following mechanism is suggested to cause the cusp-related density anomaly: The energy input by the solar wind, as characterised by the merging electric field, provides the power for Joule heating of preferably neutral molecules. Soft particle precipitation in the cusp simultaneously enhances the altitude of maximal Pedersen conductivity, thus lifting up the heated layer in the cusp. The cusp-related density anomaly is then caused by local composition changes in the upper atmosphere due to the differential expansion of heavier particles. The density enhancement is more intensive during phases of high solar activity, i.e. a larger background density favours the formation of large anomalies. The atmospheric fountain in the cusp region affects the upper atmosphere globally. The harmonic exitation of the fountain in 2005 caused a global density variation of the thermosphere.

Description: One significant outcome of my thesis is an improved chronostraphigraphical framework for the glacial lacustrine unit of the Black Sea sediment cores, which allowed to refine the environmental history of the Black Sea region and enabled a reliable correlation with data from other marine and terrestrial archives. Data gathered along a N-S transect presented on a common time scale revealed coherent changes in the basin and its surrounding. [...] My PhD thesis is based on four manuscripts, published or submitted to peer-reviewed international journals, and one additional preliminary study.

Description: This volume contains the results of the DESERT project running from 2000 to 2006. It opens with a review paper (DESERT Group, 2009) followed by 33 special papers, see list of content (529 pages).

Description: As part of this thesis, a new strategy for the inversion of stress states from fault-slip data is introduced (Chapter 2). This new approach is applied to data sampled from outcrops along the southern margin of the CEBS (Chapter 4) and from outcrops in the Oslo Graben area (Chapter 5). The results derived from these study areas deliver new insights into the evolution of paleostress fields that controlled the development of the entire CEBS.

Description: In this report, we will present the complete derivation of analytical expressions of the EM coupling torque in dependence on the parameters of the fields contributing to it. For this, we choose a special set of spherically harmonic (SH) base functions and present all major steps of the derivation. Our report will be (i) closer to a lecture note than to a scientific paper and should give all readers the possibility to follow the derivations with the related details in the appendix, and can be (ii) used as a formulary for scientists working on this special field of investigation.

Description: For the motivation behind our investigations, we refer to the introduction of the first part of our report, Hagedoorn & Geiner-Mai (2008). In this part, we will (i) give an analytical description of the topographic surface of the core-mantle boundary (CMB) and derive an approximation for its normal unit vector containing information about the CMB topography, and (ii) derive an expression for the topographic torque as a function of the topographic height, h, and the velocity field, u. For this, we will check the assumptions made when applying the geostrophic approximation to the upper core-surface region. Finally, we will derive analytical expressions for the torque components depending upon the spherical harmonic (SH) coefficients of h and u in a cartesian geocentric coordinate system.

Description: This volume contains extended abstracts from talks and posters presented at the sixth TRACE (Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology) conference, held in Riga (Latvia) May 3rd – 6th, 2007.

Description: In this study two aspects of the geomagnetic field have been investigated. The first part focuses on perturbations of the external field, as seen by the CHAMP satellite and predicted by the Thermosphere-Ionosphere Electrodynamic General Circulation Model, for the purpose of helping to separate out ionospheric sources from the ambient geomagnetic field using a physics based approach. Part two looks at variations of the internal field through an examination of the South Atlantic Anomaly.