High-pressure systems in the atmosphere, the movement of water masses caused by tides, and the melting of the polar ice caps all affect the Earth’s rotation. Accurate measurements of the Earth’s rotation are essential not only for climate change research but also for the proper functioning of navigation devices. The research group “RING: Rotational Movements in Physics, Geophysics, and Geodesy” aims to create improved conditions for this. The DFG is funding the project with a total of approximately five million euros, of which about one million euros will go to the University of Bonn.
“Rotational movements of the Earth’s surface offer a new approach to studying and better understanding the Earth system,” says Prof. Simon Stellmer of the Quantum Metrology Group at the University of Bonn. “To this end, we are developing portable laser interferometers that can be deployed in hard-to-reach locations, such as volcanoes or the ocean floor.” These are particularly relevant for seismology. The other partners in this area are LMU Munich, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, the University of Hamburg, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Some of these partners bring extensive expertise in gravitational wave detector technology to the consortium.
In addition to small, portable sensors, large ring lasers with a surface area of 100 square meters are also being developed to detect the tiniest variations in the Earth’s rotation. “We are developing new components and methods for highly stable ring lasers. These are tested in our laboratory, and if they work, we install them in the large underground geodetic observatories in Wettzell and Fürstenfeldbruck. " explains Simon Stellmer. The other partners in this field of geodesy come from the Technical University of Munich, the Technical University of Berlin, the University of Hannover, the Bundesamt für Geodäsie und Kartographie, and the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences GFZ.
The team of spokespersons consists of Heiner Igel (LMU), Daniela Thaller (BKG), and Simon Stellmer.
In the current funding round, the DFG has approved 13 additional research groups, two of which involve the University of Bonn: one investigating conceptions of God in ancient Israel during the pre-Christian era, and one examining the emergence of new dependencies in the Global South driven by Chinese technology companies.