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Interactive Exhibit on the topics of Coastal Research & Drift Behavior

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon (HZH) uses an exciting science game to provide information about the results of the Institute for Coastal Research. With the help of measuring buoys, research vessels, observation satellites and radar systems, scientists at the HZH have been recording the flow velocity, water temperature and wave height of the North Sea, among other things, for over 40 years. This and other measurement data is analyzed in order to develop computer models that show the ocean currents in the past, today and in the future. This makes it possible, for example, to determine which coastal areas need to be protected most urgently in the event of an oil spill, how future storm surges could affect them - or where a message in a bottle thrown into the water at any point in the North Sea will drift.

  • Client

    Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft

  • Year

    2009

  • Tasks

    Exhibition Concept, Script, Interaction Design, Editorial, Illustration, Media design, Animation, Application Development, Hardware procurement

Virtual field test on Drift behavior as a game

From the board of a small motorboat, the player can throw his "virtual" message in a bottle into the North Sea. Insertion point and destination can be chosen on a digital chart. It is important for the choice of a favorable starting position to take advantage of the natural flow in order to float the bottle as close as possible to its destination. The drifting path of the bottle on its 15 day trip can not only be followed aboard the HZH research boat – the states are also being displayed on a true-to scale marine chart. Amongst other things the virtual field test shows how variable the current conditions in the German Bight are. A possible starting point for example is the period around 16 February 1962, when a fateful storm surge reached the North Sea coast and the lower reaches of the Elbe and Weser. The goal is to introduce a lay audience impressive and practical to the principles, objectives and outcomes of interdisciplinary projects of the HZH. The game is based on the measurement data from more than 40 years of research.

Open Ship 2010 Research at Anchor with the Ludwig Prandtl

From the 12th to 16th of July 2010 the "Ludwig Prandtl" of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon called the ports of Ostfriesland, and opened its doors to visitors. The core of the floating exhibition: the interactive station on coastal research developed by us.

Numerous large and small visitors took the opportunity to inspect the digital exhibits, research tools and to get first hand informations by the Helmholtz scientists about the use and the function of the instruments used.

Several stations were built up in the "Ludwig Prandtl". The “Ferry box”, a box which is installed on two container ships and a ferry in the North Sea and wwhich regularly collects data - among other things, temperatures, waves, wind and salt - was one of the exhibits shown. In the computer program "coastDat" Data from the North Sea is captured since 1958. That way the scientists are able to map the wind and air pressure, the water level and tide of the recent years. This makes it possible to follow the drift of oil, or rather the increasing spread of oil pollution. Playfully, the visitors on board the "Prandtl" were enable to follow the current conditions of the North Sea with the "Virtual Message in a bottle" developed by us.

While the "Open Ship Tour", the research ship anchored in the ports of Wilhelmshaven, Norderney, Leer and Delfzijl. On accompanying evening events everyone could get informations about current research topics and afterwards exchange ideas with scientists from the Helmholtz Institute for Coastal Research. Among other things, the institutes' directors Professor Dr. Hans von Storch and Prof. Dr. Franciscus Colijn presented latest research results.