New Marine Research Station for Utö
A marine research station is near completion on Utö, Finland. It will produce real-time research information from under the sea, its surface, and the air all year round and around the clock. The station is being set up as a joint project of the Meteorological Institute and the Environment Institute.
The station will have a comprehensive array of equipment, some of which will be completely new types of devices, and many of them will be permanently installed in the sea in Finland for the first time. The basic idea for Utö is for a comprehethe lower atmosphere.
The Baltic Sea is a small and shallow peripheral sea which functions differently from the oceans. There is seasonal and regional variation in the carbon dioxide content of the Baltic. Depending on the approach, which gives an overall picture of the state of the sea and time and place, it can be either a sink, or source of carbon dioxide. Factors affecting the carbon balance of the Baltic Sea include the sea's biological processes, temperature, nutrients, and the ice cover. The station will provide a very varied picture from below and above the surface, and on the interaction of the sea and the atmosphere.
In addition to the height and direction of the waves, the surface current and the carbon dioxide content of the sea water and the gas exchange between the sea and the atmosphere, SYKE also get information about the oxygen content, nutrients, and the layering of the sea water.
Measurements are already being made at Utö of atmospheric particulates, greenhouse gas content, currents in the lower atmosphere, as well as maritime weather characteristics such as wind, temperature, and visibility, which are familiar from the radio.
In addition to greenhouse gases, scientists at Utö research wind power at sea, maritime technology, and emissions from shipping.
Convenient location
The research station on the lighthouse island of Utö far from the mainland, brings together different fields of science. It also differs from other stations at sea because of its occasional ice cover.
Its location on an inhabited island is effortless from the point of view of transport connections. Over a longer period of time - decades - good connections and reasonable costs are of primary importance. Also of significance from the operations at Utö is the input of the permanent residents on the island in the maintenance and service of the measurement activities.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute is building the Utö station and the needed infrastructure, and is responsible for the physics and the measuring equipment that make the observations of the dynamics of the sea. The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE is responsible for the biological measurements. Also taking part in collaboration in the research are the Defence Forces, the Universities of Turku an Helsinki, the Finnish Transport Agency, the Southwest Finland Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, and a number of maritime enterprises.
Image: the new marine research station in being built for the island Utö. Image courtesy: Lauri Laakso.
