Where the Baltic Sea touches the sky -
Air-Sea interaction in the Baltic Sea

With global warming and higher greenhouse gases in the air, scientists are interested to find out to what extent the oceans can eat up the gases to ease the climate change a bit. Can the oceans still absorb these gases or they are already exhausted? From June 30 to July 19, 2022, scientists from IOW and GEOMAR (Germany), University College London (UK) and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (USA) came together on board RV Elisabeth Mann Borgese, research cruise EMB295, to investigate air-sea exchange of greenhouse gases after the spring productive period in the central Baltic Sea in the framework of the CenBase project (short for Central Baltic Sea Air-Sea Exchange Experiment). The researchers will execute a dual tracer experiment, perform direct eddy covariance (EC) flux measurements of CO₂ and DMS, investigate the abundance and characteristics of surface active compounds, and determine surface turbulence by microstructure measurements. Continuous monitoring of the underway surface concentrations of the three major greenhouse gases CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O will allow a comparison of flux estimates based findings during the cruise and the range of published parameterizations for these gases.