Category: wave watching

Currently reading: “Why do teachers matter?” by López-Martín et al. (2023)

May 1, 2025

The study I am summarising here is a meta-analysis of 40 studies on how teacher characteristics influence secondary-school students, and they find that teacher characteristics and competencies explain 9% of…

Read more

Ice watching and thinking about reflections — in the water, and in Harvey et al. (2025)’s article

February 17, 2025

Climbing the steps out of the water after an ice dip lets me see the world from a different perspective. Instead of focussing on not slipping and on controlling my…

Read more

It is not up to us to complete the work, but neither are we free to desist from it

February 15, 2025

I now finished reading Venet (2024)’s “Becoming an Everyday Changemaker: Healing and Justice in School” (where I understood that “the process is the point“, and where then helpful tools like…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

February 12, 2025

I think this might be the last repost from my Insta ever, since I have stopped posting there…

Read more

#WaveWatching

January 1, 2025

/weɪv wɒtʃɪŋ/ noun #WaveWatching is the practice of observing water or other fluids, and trying to explain any movement. #WaveWatching is great for several reasons: It is a powerful way of…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

December 4, 2024

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

October 9, 2024

Recap of my wave watching Insta!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

October 2, 2024

Enjoy my collected wave watching pics of the last two or so weeks, including the first Swedish Nationals in Depth Freediving in a long time! :-)

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 18, 2024

Some #WaveWatching pics from my Insta @fascinocean_kiel for our mental health…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 4, 2024

Time for some wave watching!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 21, 2024

Time for a little wave watching! Enjoy!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 7, 2024

This is the 80th #WaveWatchingWednesday on this blog, recapping water pictures from my Insta @fascinocean_kiel! Funny how consistency accumulates stuff over time, imagine I was this consistent in other things…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 31, 2024

Yay water! <3

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

June 19, 2024

More waves, because water is AWESOME!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

June 12, 2024

#WaveWatchingWednesday recapping a freediving weekend in Boalt, a work trip to Bergen and Voss with lots of dipping in both places, a freediving competition back home, and more dipping!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

May 15, 2024

It’s #WaveWatchingWednesday, and this is actually my 75th post in this series, recapping my wave watching pics from my Insta @fascinocean_kiel! For all of you new readers on my blog…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

February 28, 2024

Update from my #WaveWatching Insta. Enjoy!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

January 10, 2024

Welcome to #WaveWatchingWednesday with updates from my Insta! A lot of ice dipping this year, it’s wonderful! :-)

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

January 3, 2024

Welcome to another #WaveWatchingWednesday!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

December 20, 2023

Today’s #WaveWatchingWednesday with a recap of my recent trip to Norway. Enjoy!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

November 15, 2023

Today’s #WaveWatchingWednesday is a recap of one of the most amazing experiences ever: A freediving trip to Dahab. Even though we have been back for more than a week now,…

Read more

WaveWatchingWednesday

October 18, 2023

And it’s time again for a picture dump from my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

October 4, 2023

And it’s time again for a picture dump from my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 20, 2023

Lots of #WaveWatching pics! Enjoy! :)

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 6, 2023

#WaveWatchingWednesday means here comes a repost of all my recent Insta posts! Enjoy :)

Read more

24 days of #KitchenOceanography — now available as a book!

August 28, 2023

For all of you who know and love my “24 days of #KitchenOceanography” series (and for those who need to quickly look up what that was about and then fall…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 2, 2023

Here is a recap of the last month or so of my #WaveWatching pics on Insta. Enjoy!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

June 21, 2023

Wow, I am so bad at posting wave watching pics recently… Here is everything that happened on my wave watching Instagram @fascinocean_kiel in the last 10 weeks! Enjoy!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

April 5, 2023

I haven’t done a #WaveWatchingWednesday in 7 weeks — time flies when you are having fun! So here are the last 7 weeks of water Instagram pics from @fascinocean_kiel. Enjoy!

Read more

Total internal reflection

February 25, 2023

In the “static apnea” discipline in freediving, many cool pictures of athletes are taken underwater in a way that plays with the reflection of the athlete in the still water…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

February 5, 2023

Shockingly little #WaveWatching currently happening on my Insta @fascinocean_kiel (maybe I also need to reconsider the name at some point?), but here are the latest pictures!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

January 4, 2023

This is a round-up of all my wave watching pics of the last three months of 2022. Clearly I have been busy in real life if I am that far…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 21, 2022

Welcome to another #WaveWatchingWednesday!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 7, 2022

Welcome to another #WaveWatchingWednesday!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 31, 2022

Welcome to my wave watching week! :)

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 24, 2022

Here is a whole summer worth of #WaveWatching pics from my Insta @fascinocean_kiel. With a bit of meta commentary around it, because there are SO many pictures. Enjoy!

Read more

Sofia (almost 6) asks: How many waves hit the beach every day?

August 14, 2022

That’s a great question, Sophia! And one that is really difficult to answer. But I’ll try!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 13, 2022

Welcome and enjoy all of last week’s #WaveWatching pics!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 6, 2022

It’s time for another #WaveWatchingWednesday, where I share all my #WaveWatching pics from my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel! Enjoy!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

June 22, 2022

Happy #WaveWatchingWednesday with a repost of all of the last two week’s worth of pics that I posted on my #WaveWatching insta @fascinocean_kiel.

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

June 8, 2022

Welcome to this #WaveWatchingWednesday, where I share pictures from my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

June 1, 2022

Welcome to this #WaveWatchingWednesday: Lots of wave pics last week on my Insta @fascinocean_kiel!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

May 25, 2022

Welcome to #WaveWatchingWednesday, my series in which I share my daily #WaveWatching pics from my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel to this blog!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

May 11, 2022

Read more

Sunday morning #WaveWatching

May 8, 2022

After spending a good chunk of yesterday afternoon transferring #WaveWatching pictures from my Instagram into a blog post here, and wondering why I did not bother to write better captions…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

May 7, 2022

I know, it’s not even Wednesday today, but I have to get all the pictures out that have accumulated since the last #WaveWatchingWednesday post on January 19th! Because these days,…

Read more

Guest post by Chris Bore on #WaveWatching

March 17, 2022

Chris Bore is one of the most loyal readers of my blog and has been for a long time, and now he wrote a beautiful post about #WaveWatching over on…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

January 19, 2022

Wow, catching up on wave watching pics from November until now…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

November 6, 2021

I just realised that the last time I posted #WaveWatching pics from my Insta @fascinocean_kiel was today a month ago, so I couldn’t wait until Wednesday… Please enjoy pics from…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

October 6, 2021

Welcome to another #WaveWatchingWednesday, where I post all of last week’s #WaveWatching pics from my Insta!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 29, 2021

Last week’s pics from my #WaveWatching Insta — enjoy! :)

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 22, 2021

A collection of #WaveWatching pics. Enjoy! :)

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 9, 2021

Waaaaater! Enjoy! :)

Read more

#WaveWatching: Oslo to Bergen, more Bergen, and Voss

September 5, 2021

I’ve been posting over on my #WaveWatching Instagram @fascinocean_kiel and finally got around to copy&pasting all the pics over here. Enjoy catching up on what I’ve been up to!

Read more

Wave watching on the ferry from Kiel to Oslo!

August 26, 2021

So I took the ferry from Kiel to Oslo and obviously had to document (most of) the water I saw :-) And now I’m exhausted. Let’s see how much water…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 25, 2021

Have a nice #WaveWatchingWednesday! :)

Read more

“Evaluating shallow water waves by observing Mach cones on the beach” — guest post by Felipe Veloso on his recent #WaveWatching article!

August 18, 2021

Super excited to share a guest post today: Felipe is writing about his recent #WaveWatching article on “Evaluating shallow water waves by observing Mach cones on the beach”. I came across…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 11, 2021

Each #WaveWatchingWednesday I’m surprised by how many #WaveWatching pics I manage to take & post to my Insta in a normal work week!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 4, 2021

Another week of my #WaveWatching Insta @fascinocean_kiel!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 28, 2021

All of the last two week’s #WaveWatching Insta pics in one place, for your viewing pleasure! :)

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 14, 2021

Check out this week’s #WaveWatching pics from my Insta @fascinocean_kiel!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 7, 2021

Here is a collection of #WaveWatching pics from my Insta @fascinocean_kiel! Enjoy!

Read more

My #WaveWatching featured in GEO Saison!

July 1, 2021

Remember I made this little wave watching foldy thingy a while back? The one you see in the lower right corner of the picture above? How cool is it that…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

June 9, 2021

A week’s worth of wave pics from my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel. Enjoy!  

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

June 2, 2021

Here are some recent #WaveWatching pics from my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel. Enjoy! :)

Read more

The ultimate guide to #WaveWatching, gooseling edition

May 30, 2021

I’ve been fascinated by gooselings recently, mainly because they are super cute. But I can tell you about what makes wave watching special when the waves are made by geese…

Read more

#WaveWatching as “transformative experience”? (Based on articles by Pugh et al. 2019, 2011, 2010)

May 27, 2021

I was reading an article on “active learning” by Lombardi et al. (2021), when the sentence “In undergraduate geoscience, Pugh et al. (2019) found that students who made observations of…

Read more

#WaveWatching: Wind & sheltering

May 20, 2021

For my dear friends, who are worrying because I didn’t post any #WaveWatching pics recently: I’m still here, and I’m still wave watching! :) For example on my lunch time…

Read more

An iEarth teaching conversation with Kjersti Daae and Torgny Roxå on #WaveWatching

May 20, 2021

iEarth is currently establishing the new-to-me format of “teaching conversations”, where two or more people meet to discuss specific aspects of one person’s teaching in a “critical friend” setting. Obviously…

Read more

A quick intro to #WaveWatching

May 12, 2021

I set up a german page with a very simple intro to wave watching and thought I’d repost the images below. The reason for that new page is super exciting:…

Read more

More cute baby geese making waves!

May 7, 2021

They are just too adorable for words! And a heron photobombing :)

Read more

Fun #WaveWatching today! Reflections all the way….and then the boundary suddenly ends!

May 7, 2021

You might remember this edge here and the reflection situation. More details in this recent post, but in a nutshell: The wave crests marked in red are approaching the beach…

Read more

Baby geese making waves <3

April 29, 2021

At the moment, I am doing almost daily trips to check up on the baby geese because they are just sooo cute! And growing up so quickly! Their waves are…

Read more

When you meet a hard boundary, the reflection starts

April 25, 2021

When I look at the picture above, I see basically three different zones on the surface of the lake. The yellow zone, which is under the direct influence of the…

Read more

All the things too investigate

April 23, 2021

Sometimes it’s not the prettiest wave watching pics that we can think about the most. Here, I really like how the petals that blew from the trees surrounding the lake…

Read more

Rotating foam disk

April 22, 2021

So you thought exciting wave watching can only happen near the ocean? That is so not true! Last weekend, for example, I spotted the round foam patch just downstream of…

Read more

My wave watching picture book for kids is out!

April 21, 2021

A wave watching book for beginners and those who appreciate the art and science of wave watching! Now available to order here or via any book store or online dealer…

Read more

Baby geese

April 21, 2021

These baby geese made me so happy on my run this morning! Even though they have to learn to swim a little faster and less messy for a nice wake…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

April 7, 2021

I didn’t post one of these since Februray, so it’s about time! These are all my #WaveWatching Insta posts since then!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

February 17, 2021

Haven’t posted a #WaveWatchingWednesday in a while — but I am very regularly posting over on my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel. Check it out if you fancy a more regular supply of…

Read more

Using #WaveWatching and #KitchenOceanography to prepare students for a one-day research cruise

January 21, 2021

When students have only one day at sea, it’s important to prepare them well for what will happen there so they get the chance to make the most of the…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

January 20, 2021

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

January 13, 2021

Here are the most recent #WaveWatching posts I posted on my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel. Enjoy!

Read more

Published in Oceanography: How to Teach Motivating and Hands-On Laboratory and Field Courses in a Virtual Setting

January 9, 2021

One of the few “behind the scenes” shots of me taking #WaveWatching pictures! See the super awesome current right at my feet? :-D⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Similar to kitchen oceanography, I believe…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

December 30, 2020

Last #WaveWatchingWednesday of 2020 — this year’s final compilation of my Instagtam posts! Today with a lot of non-wave watching pics. But who doesn’t love some #KitchenOceanography?

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

December 16, 2020

Welcome to #WaveWatchingWednesday! Here are some recent wave watching pics. Enjoy!

Read more

DIY #WaveWatching “fortune teller” on #WaveWatchingWednesday

December 9, 2020

(Download in English || Download in Spanish; thanks to Felipe Veloso for translating!) How about a little wave watching game to celebrate #WaveWatchingWednesday? The minute I saw Andrea Lopez Lang’s…

Read more

Testing the new particle tracking app “Flow on the Go”

December 2, 2020

The new particle tracking app “Flow on the Go” became available for testing on iOS yesterday. And it is SO AWESOME!!! The idea is that particle that are advected in…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

November 25, 2020

For #WaveWatchingWednesday, please enjoy a collection of water pics from my #WaveWatching Insta @fascinocean_kiel!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

November 11, 2020

Even though I haven’t done a #WaveWatchingWednesday in a looong time, there has of course been a lot of wave watching going on. But the longer I wait with copying…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

October 7, 2020

It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for a recap of my #WaveWatching Instagram! Check out nice pictures & some explanations behind the cut!

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 9, 2020

It’s #WaveWatchingWednesday, and that means that you get all of last weeks wave watching Instagram posts compiled into one blog post. Enjoy!

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: Field work right outside our students’ homes

September 4, 2020

This is a (admittedly terribly crowded — but I only had 1 A4 page and there are so many interesting #BergenWaveWatching stories to tell!) poster that I am presenting on…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

September 2, 2020

Another week’s worth of #wavewatching Instagram posts all in one place for your viewing pleasure! :-)

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 26, 2020

Welcome to another #WaveWatchingWednesday — all my wave watching Instagram pictures in one place! Read all about it (and look at a lot of pretty pictures!) below the cut.

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

August 19, 2020

I haven’t posted a #WaveWatchingWednesday in quite some time, so behind the cut there are a lot of pretty pictures for you! Enjoy!

Read more

Marine energy: Tides. A guest post by Manel Camacho

August 18, 2020

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Manel Camacho. Manel and I met on Twitter and bonded over our joint love of wave watching — me as a dedicated…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 22, 2020

A week’s worth of #WaveWatching pictures for you. Enjoy! Starting off strong: I love living in Kiel! Totally different vibe the next morning, looking very winter-y somehow. And then another…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 15, 2020

Here are lots of wave watching post from my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel.de. Enjoy! More below the cut…

Read more

Wave watching in preparation of a guided tour! (Day 2)

July 12, 2020

Woke up at 4:11 this morning and was AWAKE. So the obvious thing to do is catch the sunrise from the bridge across Kiel canal! And I was lucky that…

Read more

Wave watching in preparation of a guided tour! (Day 1)

July 12, 2020

Had a really early start yesterday (today again, but those pics will come in a separate post :-)) because I wanted to cycle to the beach to prepare a guided…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 8, 2020

Another week’s worth of wave watching posts on my Insta @fascinocean_kiel! See it all below the cut.

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 1, 2020

Ooops, long time no see! But even though I haven’t posted a #WaveWatchingWednesday on my blog in a while, I’ve still been active over on Instagram. These are the last…

Read more

A #WaveWatching memory game for #SciCommChall

June 7, 2020

So I don’t know if this is a good idea that anyone would actually want to play with. But when I was visiting my sister last week, she was working…

Read more

Walk along the cliffline & beach in Stohl

May 31, 2020

About a week ago, I went on a lovely walk with my parents, and here are the pictures. How I love the beach! As I am looking more at ripples…

Read more

Irregular wave ripples, and some left on the beach when the water is gone

May 29, 2020

I’m getting more and more fascinated with wave ripples. I kinda understand how they form, but not enough to be able to explain as much about them as I would…

Read more

Birthday on the beach

May 24, 2020

After, at that point, more than two week of self-isolation in my flat with only my early morning walks away from the flat, and only runs with my friend J.…

Read more

Foam stripes and sand ripples

May 22, 2020

So you might have seen my novel on the formation of sand ripples last week, and the tl;dr: I have a vague idea of how sand ripples form, but it’s…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

May 20, 2020

More beautiful #WaveWatching pictures! Enjoy … below the cut! :-)

Read more

Rossby-#WaveWatchingWednesday

May 20, 2020

Several of my friends were planning on teaching with DIYnamics rotating tables right now. Unfortunately, that’s currently impossible. Fortunately, though, I have one at home and enjoy playing with it enough…

Read more

Such a pretty #friendlywaves!

May 18, 2020

My long time Twitter friend Anne shared these beautiful pictures and I absolutely had to do a #friendlywaves post where I explain other people’s wave pictures. Take a moment to admire…

Read more

Birds make for super interesting wave watching!

May 16, 2020

My perfect Saturdays start like this: Early morning walk along the water, followed by coffee while blogging about waves. Today’s focus: The cool waves that birds make! First, let’s look…

Read more

Sand ripples. Why do they form in the exact way they do?

May 15, 2020

It has been bugging me for a while that on days where there isn’t a lot going on in terms of regular wave watching, I often see ripples in the…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

May 13, 2020

Here is a picture dump of pretty pictures for you! All this happened over the last week over on @fascinocean_kiel!                    …

Read more

A #friendlywaves from Lofoten

May 11, 2020

A #friendlywaves post: you send me the pictures, I talk about physics! Today: My friend A sent me these lovely pictures from Lofoten, knowing I love wave watching. And there is…

Read more

THE WAVE at Boot Düsseldorf

May 8, 2020

It seems insane that back in January I voluntarily spent time at the “Boot”, a water sports trade show in Düsseldorf with over 250.000 visitors. I was there doing ocean scicomm…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

May 6, 2020

I didn’t post a #WaveWatchingWednesday last week because even though I had tons of pretty Instagram posts, most of them didn’t have any explanations going with them. But since this…

Read more

Broken water pipes

May 5, 2020

So yesterday this happened: When I was on my way to meet my friend for a run early in the morning, the whole pavement was flooded (look at the cute…

Read more

A beautiful #friendlywaves from Spain

May 4, 2020

A reader of my blog, Rocío*, sent me this beautiful image from Arnao beach (Castrillón- Asturias-Spain), and I asked if I could use it in a #friendlywaves post. He agreed, so…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

April 22, 2020

Reposting all of last week’s posts from my #WaveWatching Instagram @fascinocean_kiel. Enjoy! Lovely morning with wave watching and all the trees in full bloom. Hope you have a nice day!…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

April 15, 2020

Here are all of last week’s #WaveWatching Instagram posts for you! If you would like daily wave watching pics rather than weekly digests, follow my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel! #wakewatching in a…

Read more

Guest post on “A little bit of lee wave math” by Jeannette Bedard

April 10, 2020

Today’s guest blogger Jeannette and I “met” on Twitter when she reposted one of my 24 Days of #KitchenOceanography posts, saying “A friend just forwarded me a #kitchenoceanography experiment that pretty…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

April 8, 2020

Welcome to another #WaveWatchingWednesday post, where you get all of last week’s wave watching pics from my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel in one go! Let’s get started: Fascinating how different parts of…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

April 1, 2020

I didn’t write a #WaveWatchingWednesday post last week. I think when my last blogpost ended with the Oslo ferry leaving Kiel for the last time in the forseeable future, it…

Read more

WaveWatchingWednesday

March 18, 2020

Here is last week’s summary of my #WaveWatching Instagram @fascinocean_kiel. Social distancing in Kiel isn’t so bad… At least until I started to take it seriously enough to stay inside…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

March 11, 2020

Recap of last week’s posts on my #WaveWatching Instagram @fascinocean_kiel! Starting off with two newts, because sometimes I actually look at stuff in the water, not just the waves on…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

March 4, 2020

Here’s another #WaveWatchingWednesday overview over my Instagram @fascinocean_kiel! Enjoy! Sun glint can be so helpful to make waves visible more clearly, like this morning. I love the combination of the…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

February 26, 2020

Welcome to the recap of my #WaveWatching Instagram @fascinocean_kiel! Starting off strong: My standard #KitchenOceanography overturning circulation experiment (recognize the tank & the cool pad?) put into a very different…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

February 19, 2020

Another week, another #WaveWatchingWednesday! Here are my collected Instagram posts from my wave watching Insta @fascinocean_kiel. Even quick glimpses of water make me happy: #WaveWatching from the train! And even…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

February 12, 2020

Another recap of a week on my wave watching Instagram @fascinocean_kiel. Enjoy! Best thing for my mental health: Running along the waterfront. Bonus if it includes wave watching as it…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

February 5, 2020

Here is another #WaveWatchingWednesday with last week’s recap of my wave watching Insta @fascinocean_kiel! Enjoy! Opening my mom’s fridge, I went „WHAT IS THAT SUPER AWESOME LAYERED SAUCE???“. Turns out…

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: Rainbows!

February 3, 2020

Reposting from Elin’s blog here! — Kjersti, Steffi, Elin and myself (Mirjam) recently discussed ways to better integrate the GEOF105 student cruise into the course. My suggestion was to ask…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

January 29, 2020

Another summary post of my wave watching Insta @fascinocean_kiel! Enjoy! What is going on in the picture below? Just from looking at the picture I could only guess, but luckily…

Read more

#WaveWatchingWednesday

January 22, 2020

For #WaveWatchingWednesday: A collection of pictures that I took (and shared on my wave watching Insta @fascinocean_kiel over the last week. For some reason with a lot more commentary on here…

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: “Remote sensing”

January 20, 2020

Reposting from Elin’s blog: Kjersti, Steffi, Elin and myself (Mirjam) recently discussed ways to better integrate the GEOF105 student cruise into the course. My suggestion was to ask the students…

Read more

Recap of my #WaveWatching Insta for #WaveWatchingWednesday

January 15, 2020

Yay! Another recap of my wave watching Insta! The year started off in the very best company — watching ships and waves and flowers with Astrid! But of course there…

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: Bergen Harbour

January 13, 2020

Reposted from Elin’s blog: Kjersti, Steffi, Elin and myself (Mirjam) recently discussed ways to better integrate the GEOF105 student cruise into the course. My suggestion was to ask the students…

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: On vibrating surfaces

January 7, 2020

Reposting from Elin’s blog: Kjersti, Steffi, Elin and myself (Mirjam) recently discussed ways to better integrate the GEOF105 student cruise into the course. My suggestion was to ask the students…

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: Ruins of a wave power plant

January 6, 2020

Reposted from Elin’s blog: Kjersti, Steffi, Elin and myself (Mirjam) recently discussed ways to better integrate the GEOF105 student cruise into the course. My suggestion was to ask the students…

Read more

#WaveWatching Insta recap: December 2019

January 3, 2020

There was a lot of wave watching going on on my Insta @fascinocean_kiel this last December! Partly because I had decided that I wanted my feed to consist of both…

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: Gutters and storm drains

December 30, 2019

Reposted from Elin’s blog: Kjersti, Steffi, Elin and myself (Mirjam) recently discussed ways to better integrate the GEOF105 student cruise into the course. My suggestion was to ask the students…

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: Looking at waves from all sides in Lille Lungegårdsvannet

December 23, 2019

Reposted from Elin’s blog: Kjersti, Steffi, Elin and myself (Mirjam) recently discussed ways to better integrate the GEOF105 student cruise into the course. My suggestion was to ask the students…

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: observing waves and tides on Storelungeren

December 16, 2019

Reposted from Elin’s blog: Kjersti, Steffi, Elin and myself (Mirjam) recently discussed ways to better integrate the GEOF105 student cruise into the course. My suggestion was to ask the students…

Read more

#BergenWaveWatching: observing the tides from a bus

December 9, 2019

Reposted from Elin’s blog: Kjersti, Steffi, Elin and myself (Mirjam) recently discussed ways to better integrate the GEOF105 student cruise into the course. My suggestion was to ask the students…

Read more

October #wavewatching: reposting my Instagram posts

November 1, 2019

My scicomm Instagram @fascinocean_kiel is back! As in it’s something that I am putting more thought into again. While it started off strong almost two years ago with daily posts…

Read more

#WaveWatching, beautiful jellyfish, miniature rip currents, double-diffusive mixing in a Latte

October 31, 2019

So today I spent a perfect day at the beach in Schilksee, at the mouth of Kiel Bight. Not a lot of wind (you see the gusts of wind further…

Read more

Watch how sediment is transported with the flow while surface waves above move in the same direction but much faster

October 25, 2019

When I was on my way down to Kiel fjord earlier this day I was in a bit of a weird mood. I was thinking about how the weather was…

Read more

Even on a no-waves day, Store Lungegårdsvannet is one of my favourite #wavewatching spots

October 18, 2019

I love how below you see the sharp edges of where the bridge’s shadow makes it possible to look into the water, when it is impossible to see anything where…

Read more

Lille Lungegårdsvannet

October 17, 2019

The geometric shape of Lille Lungegårdsvannet makes for perfect wave watching conditions. Not only when wanting to look at waves from all sides, but also when you are just fascinated…

Read more

Visiting a wave power plant on a no-waves day

October 15, 2019

You might remember earlier posts on a wave power plant I love to visit in Øygården, where it almost always looks like in the movie below (That movie is part…

Read more

Phase and group velocities in deep and shallow water

October 14, 2019

When Tor came to visit me in GFI’s basement lab a couple of days ago, he told me about an experiment he had seen in Gothenburg in the seventies. So…

Read more

The mystery of “51”, or: Tidal current at Straume Bru

October 13, 2019

My friend Pierre, who I went to Saltstraumen with in 2012, wrote me a text about a year ago and asked me to remind him to tell me about 51…

Read more

#wavewatching: Standing waves on coffee on a train!

October 12, 2019

When I wrote the blog post on “wave watching in a bucket” a couple of days ago, it strongly reminded me of a movie I had filmed already back in March…

Read more

Planetary Rossby waves — a side view

October 7, 2019

What I find really fascinating about the planetary Rossby wave experiment is to look from the side and see the columns develop and move around the tank. Here is a side-view…

Read more

Wave watching in a bucket

October 3, 2019

On the GEOF105 student cruise that I was lucky enough to join like I did last year, I happened to observe what you see in the picture above: Standing waves…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 16, in which I am almost home in Bergen

October 3, 2019

And now we have arrived in the part of Norway that, to me, feels like home rather than “oh wow, impressive landscape”. Even though the landscape is still impressive! But…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 15, in which the weather gets worse but the rivers more interesting

October 2, 2019

I love the little meandering river in the picture above! We are now approaching the west coast of Norway and all prejudices when it comes to weather over there are…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 14, in which we are in the snowy part of Bergensbanen minutt for minutt

October 1, 2019

And now we’ve reached the heights where there is fresh snow! And also where there are wild rivers. Don’t know which I find more exciting :-) Ok, yeah, it’s definitely…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 13, in which we start Bergensbanen minutt for minutt — the wave watching edition

September 30, 2019

While I was on the train from Oslo to Bergen for almost 7 hours, I sent a lot of pictures to my friend Kristin who had expressed an interest in…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 12, in which we arrive in Oslo

September 29, 2019

And here we are — at my favourite museum, the Fram museum! And I think I have in previous posts said all I can possibly say about the waves you…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 11, in which our wake meets another small island

September 28, 2019

And here we are again, driving past the next interesting structure. Above, you see our feathery wake (telling you that we are driving left-to-right past that bay). And below, I…

Read more

#puddlereflections in Bergen

September 28, 2019

Yes. Sometimes I kneel in front of puddles. And I think it was worth it!

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 10, in which our wake meets a tiny island

September 27, 2019

In the picture above, you see the waves that constitute our feathery wake *almost* reaching the little island (we are driving towards the lower right corner of the picture). And…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 9, in which we look at what the other ships do when they meet our wake

September 26, 2019

After all this wake watching, you probably noticed that the ferry I am on has a large wake. So it was fun to see how other boats changed their course…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 8, in which we do a lot of very cool #wakewatching

September 25, 2019

Now we have reached Oslofjorden. Look at our beautiful wake! Since the water is calm inside the fjord, we now also see another interesting feature of the wake: The waves…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 7, in which I find evidence for a rough night at sea

September 24, 2019

Remember how the morning was beautiful but windy? As I got up and saw how the sea spray was flying, I remembered having woken up during the night, noticing the…

Read more

The sun lights objects on Earth from the exact same direction as it lights the moon, and some wave watching

September 23, 2019

The sun lights objects on Earth from the exact same direction as it lights the moon (see a thought experiment on that here). So far so not surprising, at least…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 6, in which I watch a very windy sunrise

September 23, 2019

The next morning, even though I didn’t set an alarm and had an inside cabin, I woke up and got up exactly on time for this: But check out how…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 5, in which the weather turns bad again

September 22, 2019

Still the same evening as in the three previous posts, still windy, but now also getting overcast again. Still love our wake! And fun bonus in the sea full of…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 4, in which the sun comes back and the wind picks up

September 21, 2019

Just as quickly as it had gotten dark, the sun came out again. Love how the left side of the picture below looks like the colors are inverse with the…

Read more

Fløyen in the clouds

September 21, 2019

Yesterday, I went for a quick walk up Fløyen and really enjoyed it, despite the view being slightly different from what is usually shown on the postcards. Nice, some wake…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 3, in which we get bad weather

September 20, 2019

The weather forecast wasn’t too good for the crossing, so knowing that I was going to do some hard core wave watching anyway, I put on my full rain gear…

Read more

Bergen harbour wave watching

September 20, 2019

Oh look, someone built a perfect rectangular wave watching basin into Bergen harbour! As you see above, waves are propagating towards this little wave tank and into it. They then…

Read more

Some Bergen pics because this city is so pretty

September 19, 2019

Since it’s raining today (finally! I can’t be distracted by good weather all the time!) it’s time to post some Bergen pics! And yes, Kristin, they are all water-related. Sorry…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 2, where we look at sandbanks around Kiel

September 19, 2019

Sailing out of the Kiel fjord on a large ferry changes the whole perspective on the coastline. For example below, we see the lighthouse Friedrichsort which is located at the…

Read more

Kiel to Bergen, the mini series. Part 1, in which we do a lot of wave watching

September 18, 2019

I recently traveled from Kiel to Bergen by ferry and train, and instead of doing one single monster post about it, I thought I’d try a mini series format. Let…

Read more

Roll waves in Bergen

September 17, 2019

They might not look like much, but when I spotted these in the street this morning, I was super excited: Roll waves! I marked some of them below (just to…

Read more

Rossby waves in a rotating tank — three different demonstrations

September 10, 2019

For both of my tank experiment projects, in Bergen and in Kiel, we want to develop a Rossby wave demonstration. So here are my notes on three setups we are…

Read more

Strong gusts of wind -> lots of energy transferred to the water -> wind waves with large amplitudes

September 8, 2019

We are still in the “interesting weather” period here in Kiel. Feels more like April than like September, but I am not complaining. I love the rapid change between dark…

Read more

April weather in September (Great for #WaveWatching and cloud watching!)

September 3, 2019

Minutes after drawing the illustration to the “you are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop” quote I shared yesterday in the most beautiful…

Read more

#WaveWatching in Strande (supported by a seagull!)

September 1, 2019

Even though I’ve been looking at waves for years now, wave watching is still full of surprises. Yesterday I showed you capillary waves that a jellyfish made, and today I’m…

Read more

Jellyfish and capillary waves

August 31, 2019

Sometimes the best wave watching doesn’t happen how you expect it to happen. Look at this jellyfish, bobbing about in the surface of Kiel fjord. Can you spot the circular…

Read more

Concave sea wall focuses waves into interesting pattern

August 25, 2019

Early morning Kiel fjord — today even featuring a hot-air balloon! But, more interestingly, the wake of this police boat. I find it already pretty cool in the picture below:…

Read more

Observing the shape of shallow water waves on a beach

August 18, 2019

When I go wave watching back home in Kiel, I tend to be drawn to other places than this particular one, but sometimes you find gold in the places you…

Read more

From wind-driven capillary waves to gravity waves on a calm lake

August 17, 2019

The picture above I thought was too pretty to not put on my blog (because my blog’s main function to me is still my personal brain dump), but the picture…

Read more

Morning and evening #wavewatching in Ratzeburg, including sun dogs!

August 16, 2019

I’m super excited to be back in Ratzeburg, but before I start on all the new pictures I will be taking over the next couple of days, let’s get some…

Read more

Involuntary #dropphotography today

August 10, 2019

When I decided that I was going to stop under a tree for a while to let the shower of rain pass before heading home, the weather looked like this.…

Read more

Seeing the world with different eyes

August 6, 2019

My not-so-new-anymore job, GEO-Tag der Natur,’s goal is to help people see nature around us through different eyes. In order to enrich people’s lives, but also in order to encourage…

Read more

Walk to & visit at GEOMAR as wave watching occasion

August 5, 2019

These very long and regular wave crests were caused by a ship — they are one side of the V of a ship’s wake that’s about to reach the sea…

Read more

Lake District #wavewatching

August 4, 2019

The first wave watching during our vacation in the Lake District (which I am only writing about now because I had to post about the amazing stuff at the coast first,…

Read more

Crabs in the grass — tides in Ulverston

August 3, 2019

I hope you saw my post on the Arnside tidal bore and are well aware of the awesome tides in Morecombe Bay (if not, check it out here!), so here…

Read more

Wake watching at Ratzeburger Segelschule

August 2, 2019

The waves that ducks (or ships, or anything else moving through water) make are called “wakes”. And wake watching is so much fun! A wake is pretty much the Mach…

Read more

Fantastic wave and current watching at Piel Island

August 1, 2019

We saw Piel Island with a very cool castle ruin across the bay when visiting the South Walney Nature Reserve the other day,  and were intrigued by it. Depending on…

Read more

Tidal bore in Arnside

July 31, 2019

Does that warning sign above (that I showed as a teaser in yesterday’s post on wave watching in and around Arnside) make you as curious as it made me? Usually,…

Read more

Wave watching in and around Arnside

July 30, 2019

Arnside is a beautiful little town on the banks of the river Kent, and Astrid and I went on a nice hike along the shores of the estuary a little…

Read more

The perfect wave — and why this is not a fake image

July 29, 2019

This picture might look fake, but it’s not. But what about it does scream “fake!”? To me, there are several things: the almost perfect sinusoidal shape of the waves the way…

Read more

Watching the tides cause an hydraulic jump in the Irish Sea!

July 16, 2019

Looking at the picture above, taken in the South Walney Island Nature Reserve on our walk yesterday, what is the first thing you notice? For me, it is not the…

Read more

Astrid sent me a #friendlywaves from Whitstable for remote #wavewatching

July 14, 2019

Astrid, #wavewatching supporter from Day 1, sent me these pictures for a #friendlywaves post. Today, I want to start with a spoiler picture (or, rather, I did start with a…

Read more

A #friendlywaves from Tampa, Florida

July 13, 2019

Anyone who might be new to my blog because of yesterday’s presentation at #SiPManc — please don’t be scared and run away, this is the most complicated #friendlywaves I have…

Read more

What #wavewatching means to me. My presentation at #sipmanc

July 12, 2019

Did you miss my talk at the Science in Public conference in Manchester? Well, you are in luck — here it is! Three years ago, I visited my sister and her…

Read more

Some #wavewatching in Manchester

July 10, 2019

I’m in Manchester for Science in Public 2019 and I couldn’t help myself, I had to do some wave watching. To be fair, though: These pictures really don’t do Manchester justice…

Read more

Some #friendlywaves from Berlin

July 5, 2019

My friend Alice is currently in Berlin, and as one does when visiting Germany’s capital city: She’s wave watching! I can only say: I approve! That’s what I always do…

Read more

#DayOfTheSeafarer — #WakeWatching on Kiel fjord

June 25, 2019

I’ve been on my fair share of ships over the years, but even though I enjoy my month or two at sea every year, I cannot even begin to express…

Read more

A pilot ship making waves, and what happens to the waves over time

June 24, 2019

This is the story of a pilot ship, merrily sailing along on a beautiful day, making waves. Since it’s windy and Kiel fjord is a little choppy, the waves break…

Read more

Wave watching on Schwentine river

June 23, 2019

Surprise! I did some wave watching yesterday! Ok, let’s start with something simple to warm you up: A duck’s wake. And wind waves (coming in from the top right) hitting…

Read more

Wave watching on Brodowinsee

June 17, 2019

What do you do the night before the most important three days of your whole work year? Yep — some wave watching with friends! On Thursday night, we went to…

Read more

Wave watching in Kleinwaabs — and my first real Insta story!

June 14, 2019

So today (and tomorrow and the day after) is the big event that I have been working towards all year in my not-so-new-anymore job: The GEO-Tag der Natur! If you…

Read more

Watching a V-shaped wave widen over time

June 13, 2019

Yesterday we looked at a very cool wake that Nena sent in as a #friendlywaves, today I have a nice gif for you to illustrate one of the points that…

Read more

Nena sent me some #friendlywaves from Lago Maggiore

June 12, 2019

This is a #friendlywaves challenge, where I try to explain other people’s wave photos and they tell me how I did. I love it when my friends see waves, think…

Read more

GEO-Tag der Natur making waves on Parsteiner See.

June 10, 2019

Remember I did this for work? We ended up with pretty cool pictures, like this one: And as I was standing in the water, guess what I was doing? Taking…

Read more

Feathery wake approaching! #WaveWatching in Kiel Holtenau

June 9, 2019

A week ago already, Frauke and I went on an evening walk in Kiel Holtenau. Beautiful wave watching to be done there as always! Here you see the one side…

Read more

On #WorldOceansDay, revisiting one of my favourite places to wave-watch: a broken wave power plant

June 8, 2019

Anyone who has ever read my blog, seen my Instagram, or met me in person knows: The ocean is hugely important for me. The ocean is important for my mental…

Read more

Wave watching in an end moraine lake in Brodowin

June 6, 2019

On our work trip to Brodowin to prepare the GEO-Tag der Natur (which will take place here only  a little more than a week from now! Crazy!), I had the…

Read more

Observing a breeze making waves on Parsteiner See

June 5, 2019

Yesterday, I happened to be at Parsteiner See for work. At first, the sea was completely calm and the only waves were the ones we made doing our photo shoots,…

Read more

Wave watching in front of the Reichstag. That’s my kind of sightseeing!

June 5, 2019

Did you notice that most tourist ships on the Spree in Berlin don’t actually have nice bow waves? Luckily I found one that does! (see above) Because what then happens…

Read more

Atmospheric & water wave watching

June 4, 2019

What I find really fascinating about watching waves in the atmosphere rather than on water is that all the waves that become visible are not surface waves like on water,…

Read more

Rainy day wave watching on Kiel fjord: diffraction, wind effects, a wake, and more rain

June 1, 2019

On Thursday I went on a “let’s go for a walk, but if it starts raining too much, we’ll just go have coffee” trip with a friend to the east…

Read more

Wind-driven waves in natural flumes for #flumefriday

May 31, 2019

On a bike tour with my friend Frauke in Greetsiel two or three weeks ago, she pointed out how well one could see that the waves on the puddles left…

Read more

Ships displace huge amounts of water, and it doesn’t come back immediately when they are gone!

May 29, 2019

Last weekend, while wave watching at one of my favourite spots, I observed something curious. Look at the movie below, this is what the turbulent wake of a ship usually…

Read more

Surface roughness, fetch, capillary waves

May 28, 2019

Talking about capillary waves the other day, I thought I’d show you some more pictures of them. Today not in a close up, but rather their overall effect on surface…

Read more

Some port of Kiel #wavewatching: A feathery wake getting fanned out and bunched together!

May 27, 2019

Wakes are always interesting to watch. But usually, I am showing wakes of ships going straight ahead. So today, I have something cool for you: The wake of a ship…

Read more

Sunday #wavewatching. Shallow water waves, deep water waves, #wakewatching, reflections, refractions, and more.

May 26, 2019

This is the blogpost I wanted to write today before I got distracted by all the adventures on MS Stadt Kiel with sightseeing and swing dancing and all the good stuff…

Read more

Spontaneous adventures are the best! Today involving a trip on a historic ship, some sight seeing on Kiel fjord and a bit of Lindy Hop

May 26, 2019

I’m lucky to have great friends like Alice, who was spontaneous enough to go on a mini cruise with me today (for which I was only given tickets when I…

Read more

Gravity waves and capillary waves on Kiel fjord

May 25, 2019

Yesterday, I took some pretty pictures of a red balloon floating on Kiel fjord, some seagulls swimming close to it, and — of course, most importantly — the seagull’s waves.…

Read more

Muddy water watching on my lunch break. Turbulence and all the good stuff!

May 23, 2019

This might not be the kind of water that people usually like to look at during their lunch break — I admit, it does not look particularly inviting. But look…

Read more

Dirty drainage ditch or a natural flume for fluid dynamics fun? You decide!

May 17, 2019

At first glance, the picture above might not look too appealing. Dusty, almost stagnant water in a drainage ditch? Ok, the dust might actually mainly be pollen, which makes it…

Read more

Making waves and watching them disappear

May 16, 2019

Happiness is: Making waves, watching them spread, watching them disappear. Here, you see waves that I made by gently rocking a small row boat. You see them radiating away from…

Read more

A #friendlywaves from Cyprus

May 15, 2019

My friend Alice (of the awesome Instagram @scied_alice and the equally awesome blog, which you should totally follow) sent me a #friendlywaves from her trip to Cyprus. She said that this was a…

Read more

When commuting is actually enjoyable. #wavewatching

May 13, 2019

What I love about my job (in addition to the awesome job itself, obviously)? That my office is located in pretty much the coolest spot in Hamburg when it comes to…

Read more

Hijacking other people’s “good morning!” tweets to talk about a duck’s wake

May 12, 2019

A beautiful picture: the pink sky, purple clouds, a peaceful channel flowing in between lush greens that the calm water surface mirrors back, a bridge somewhere in the background, connecting…

Read more

Spotting both the V-shaped and turbulent wake of a faraway ship on a calm day

May 11, 2019

The title says it all, I guess ;-) In the picture above, you can still see the ship on the left, and having seen the ship, I am sure you…

Read more

Determining the slope of sea surface via the reflection of a structure

May 9, 2019

(Disclaimer: The physics the title refers to are somewhere in the second half of the blog post when I am done rambling) In case you are wondering why I am…

Read more

The wonders of a Wadden Sea. Or what someone addicted to #wavewatching thinks they are

May 7, 2019

As someone living on the German Baltic Sea coast, I don’t spend a lot of time on the North Sea coast (except, actually, my week-long vacation after Easter with my…

Read more

Influence of wind and water depth on a wave field (or: a beach vacation in Dornumersiel)

May 6, 2019

I took the selfie above mainly to send to my mom from my vacation in Dornumersiel on the German North Sea coast. But then when looking through the hundreds of…

Read more

Reflections in waves

May 5, 2019

After doing a #friendlywaves post from a Norwegian fjord yesterday, let’s do another one from somewhere south of Bergen, by my friend Arnt. Very different mood today! What I find…

Read more

A #friendlywaves from a field trip in a Norwegian fjord

May 4, 2019

The other day, my friend and co-author Pierré sent me pictures he took during fieldwork in a Norwegian fjord. As I, sadly, wasn’t there, all I can do now is…

Read more

Saturday morning #wavewatching

May 4, 2019

So the main reason I got up early today and went for a run was because when I woke up and checked the weather forecast, it said that it would…

Read more

Same beach, different waves. Why?

April 18, 2019

Here is a puzzle for you. Walking along a beach, first, the waves looked like this: One wave breaking at a time. That’s the situation you also see in the…

Read more

Who can explain these foam stripes? No, it’s not Langmuir circulation

April 17, 2019

You see them a lot here on Kiel fjord when it’s windy, and this is what they looked like last Saturday: Foam stripes than run parallel to the coast for…

Read more

Early morning wave watching. Nothing quite like it :-)

April 17, 2019

Occasionally working from home is awesome for many reasons, but mainly because I can use the time usually spent on commuting on … wait for it … wave watching. With…

Read more

Windy days at Holtenau locks: Now THAT’s a turbulent wake!

April 16, 2019

Now that the weather is nice and sunny again, here is what it looked like only last Saturday. It wasn’t even really stormy, but windy enough so that the ships…

Read more

Wave watching at Kiel Holtenau locks

April 10, 2019

On Sunday, I set out to see a large cruise liner go through the locks at Kiel Holtenau. What happened, though, was that a ship with a smiley painted on…

Read more

Early morning Kiel fjord #wavewatching with the help of condensation trails

April 9, 2019

When it’s all foggy and there are hardly any waves, sometimes help comes from the most unexpected places. Today: condensation trails that are reflected on the water! Isn’t it interesting…

Read more

Interesting pilot ship #wavewatching at Kiel canal

April 8, 2019

Some throwback Friday evening wave watching (at the locks at Kiel Holtenau with my friend Sara for a nice and relaxing end of the week) to start the new week.…

Read more

Towards the raising sun, leaving behind a perfect wake

April 7, 2019

Do you see the half circle waves connecting the “feathers” of the feathery V-wake? I love wave watching in the early morning, this light is just the best!

Read more

A tiny waterfall, super- and subcritical flows, submerged hydraulic jump, standing waves. What more could anyone want?

April 5, 2019

Last stop on my work trip that — apart from doing important work, obviously — brought me to Berlin for some wave watching and to Brodowin to look at beaver…

Read more

Sightseeing in Berlin? Any excuse for a #wavewatching trip!

April 3, 2019

Berlin is full of interesting history to discover … for example that of ships that have gone past on the Spree! :-D Let’s start with some easy wave watching. In…

Read more

You are watching seals? I am watching waves!

March 30, 2019

On a recent evening stroll with a friend, the seal basin looked like this: “Do you think there are any seals in there today?” she asked. “Why yes, of course,…

Read more

Wake comparisons: Row boat and motor boat

March 26, 2019

I just love this picture: The two boats in the front are going at the same speed (the trainer is driving right next to the person in the row boat…

Read more

Night swimming… or at least night-time wave watching

March 25, 2019

Looking at Kiel fjord in the picture below, it is quite obvious from the shape of the waves that those waves are some ship’s wake. Why is that obvious? Because…

Read more

Roll waves in the sand dunes? Observing erosion

March 6, 2019

On our trip to the west coast yesterday, I observed something really cool: Sand roll waves (I think!) in the sand dunes! But before I get to that, this is the…

Read more

Wave watching from a train

March 6, 2019

You know how they say that the journey is the destination? That was certainly the case for my spontaneous mini-vacation yesterday (and how awesome is it that my #BestTravelBuddy is…

Read more

A different kind of drop photography today…

March 4, 2019

After all the professional drop photography I talked about yesterday, here is some of my own from a walk that I took after the amazing and slightly overwhelming experience of…

Read more

Intriguing interference pattern of waves

March 2, 2019

Do you see those weird traces going away from us, perpendicular to the wave crests, but in parallel to the bright stripes on the sea floor (I talked about those…

Read more

Wave watching by proxy — looking at how waves focus light on the sea floor

March 1, 2019

What is it that we actually look at when we go wave watching? Water is pretty much clear (or at least it is in the spots where I like to…

Read more

Wave watching at the locks in Kiel Holtenau

February 28, 2019

Yes, we are back to wake watching! Today I went to a new-to-me wave watching spot: The bridge across Kiel canal close to the Holtenau locks, which you see in…

Read more

Wakes by birds, a row boat, and a SUP board

February 28, 2019

After talking a lot about turbulent wakes this week, here are two pictures of different kinds of wakes. They are of course turbulent, too, but on a very different scale.…

Read more

Visiting my friend’s office for some #wavewatching

February 27, 2019

Since we seem to be on the topic of wake watching these days, here are some pictures I took when visiting my friend Liz at the European Cruise Service’s offices…

Read more

#wakewatching seems to become a thing for me

February 26, 2019

Usually I look at wakes when ships are long gone, or at least leaving. Today, let’s look at one where the ship is coming towards us and we see how…

Read more

Turbulent wake watching

February 25, 2019

Yesterday I wrote about why a ship’s turbulent wake stays visible for such a long time after the ship has gone. Here just more pictures of the same phenomenon because…

Read more

Why does a turbulent wake stay visible for such a long time after the ship has gone?

February 24, 2019

Speaking of wake watching, the other day I wrote about long distance wave watching in the sunset, i.e. what kind of things one can deduce on surface roughness (and its…

Read more

Is #wakewatching the new and improved #wavewatching?

February 23, 2019

It all began when I spotted a wake (the feathery, dark line going across the water behind that boat house) and decided I needed to show the world how cool…

Read more

Reflecting waves, reflected and refracted light, and a Fata Morgana

February 23, 2019

How much physics can you spot in a single picture? What I see here: Waves and their reflection on the sea wall (Do you see the two main fields? One…

Read more

Long-distance wave watching during sunset

February 16, 2019

Have you ever noticed how much you can observe when you look at water from a distance? For example in these pictures, you see the tracks of ships that are…

Read more

Fascinating how the same body of water can show up in so many different colors at once!

February 8, 2019

Stupid as it sounds, one of my favourite wave watching spots in Bergen is a busy bridge with a view onto another busy bridge. But the bridge goes across a…

Read more

#wavewatching in the sky

February 7, 2019

On Elin’s student cruise (read more about that here) very nice wave watching was to be had, both on the water as well as in the sky. In the picture…

Read more

Commissioned wave watching: Eckernförde edition on a beautiful calm and sunny Sunday!

January 20, 2019

Recently, more and more of my friends send me pictures of waves they spotted when walking along a lake side or taking a ferry ride. I love how contagious wave watching…

Read more

Forget about big waves, today we are focussing on the details!

January 15, 2019

Today we are focussing on tiny waves right near the shore inside the sheltered harbor. See how below there are two wave fields, one with longer waves with crests that…

Read more

More wave watching, this time in Kiel

January 15, 2019

Beautiful morning arriving back in Kiel… Looking downwind, the weather might seem pleasant (especially when focussing on the sunrise). But looking upwind however, the wind rows on the water as…

Read more

Sunset wave watching in Gothenburg. Wakes under different light conditions!

January 14, 2019

Wave watching from high up gives you a whole new perspective on wakes, and depending on the lighting, features in the wave field become more prominent or fade away. See…

Read more

Wave watching on Kiel Canal: Bulbous bows and how they shape the wave field

January 6, 2019

Even when I fully intend to just go for a Saturday afternoon walk to catch up with a friend, this is what happens… I get distracted by waves. Like the…

Read more

Minimal distractions from #wavewatching on a foggy Sunday morning in Kiel

January 6, 2019

I’ve been wondering. Are foggy mornings where all you can see are waves (and a couple of seagulls) opportunities on which everybody else sees the world like I always see…

Read more

I see a new hashtag in my future #oceanographyofpuddleswithreflectionsofElbphilharmonie

January 4, 2019

There is a theme these days: one of Hamburg’s most famous sights, the concert hall called Elbphilharmonie. And not only is it a pretty impressive buildings, it’s located right at…

Read more

Here is to new beginnings!

January 2, 2019

From dawn til dusk (which wasn’t actually as long a time as it sounds ;-)), first day in my new job as programme manager of the citizen science project on…

Read more

Where has all the water gone?

January 1, 2019

You might have noticed that in today’s first post there was a lot less water in the Kiel fjord than in yesterday’s post (starting this year strong on the blogging front! I…

Read more

Ferry sailed past, wake perpendicular to wind. Cool interference pattern!

January 1, 2019

Guess the title says it all today ;-) Just kidding. Below you see a movie of a neat interference pattern I observed this morning. The situation is similar to yesterday in…

Read more

When the ferry has long sailed past and the waves start appearing out of the fog…

December 31, 2018

Ending 2018 in style and exactly the way I want to continue in 2019: wave watching and dipping into Kiel fjord! 2018 has been an exciting year and a lot…

Read more

Visiting the ruins of a wave power plant — waves running up a funnel to fill a reservoir

December 20, 2018

Using wave energy to generate electricity sounds very attractive, after all there are tons of waves and all they do (in addition to looking pretty) is eroding coast lines. But…

Read more

Visiting the ruins of a wave power plant — waves driving a turbine

December 19, 2018

After posting about how longer fetch leads to higher waves yesterday, here is why I was in that exact spot in the first place: To visit an old wave power…

Read more

Same wind, different waves, or: the influence of fetch length on the size of waves

December 18, 2018

I just found this picture that I took back in May near my friend Elin’s cabin on an island in western Norway, and it’s a really nice illustration of how…

Read more

Mystery picture! Can you solve this wave riddle?

October 5, 2018

Today is a great day for a wave riddle! Below you see a picture I took on my walk home the other day. Can you tell what caused those waves? (Solution…

Read more

Thinking about the Doppler effect as of a boat sailing against the waves!

September 25, 2018

I can’t believe I haven’t written about this on my blog before, thanks Markus Pössel for reminding me of this great way to understand the Doppler effect! Doppler effect, or…

Read more

The first autumn storm and its impact on dye tracer and water level

September 22, 2018

Last night it rained a lot. So the first thing to do this morning was to check what that had done to my green lake! The dye is now a…

Read more

Wave reflections

September 20, 2018

This still is one of my favourite kinds of wave field to look at. So calming. (Who am I kidding. All waves are my favourite waves, of course! I am…

Read more

Wave watching: Refraction and diffraction of waves

September 19, 2018

A little more wave watching, today with a focus on how waves change direction when they run into shallow water. Let’s look at this beautiful wave and see what happens when…

Read more

Wave watching as official part of the program of a conference on chemistry and physics education!

September 17, 2018

Yes, you read that correctly. The German Society for Chemistry and Physics Education (GDCP)’s annual conference started out with a 2 hour cruise on Kiel fjord, during which the participants…

Read more

Wave watching: A wake, another wake, and a mystery wave

September 15, 2018

And we are wave watching again! A ship’s wake and the different zones within Here is the wake of the little ferry that goes across Kiel canal. I love how…

Read more

Wave watching at the Kiel Holtenau locks

September 12, 2018

So many people are surprised when I speak of wave watching as of a “real activity”. But to me it is! So I am going to talk you through a…

Read more

When not the fetch but a funnel shapes the wave field

September 8, 2018

As you know we are currently preparing for future wave riddles. So this afternoon I went out for a wave hunt again and found something beautiful for you! The ship…

Read more

What makes and destroys waves

September 6, 2018

Today I have a couple of photos for you to prepare you for upcoming wave riddles. Since, in those riddles, I usually ask what might have caused the wave on…

Read more

Seal watching

August 25, 2017

It’s not so super common that I get to see seals in the wild, so bear with me today: I have to share some pics!

Read more

Swan in sunrise 

August 21, 2017

I never thought I would ever say this, but somehow these early morning runs are growing on me…

Read more

Best investment into my mental health?

August 19, 2017

Joining a local club that gives me access to this whenever I like…

Read more

Best way to start any #dayofscience ? Early morning swim in Kiel fjord

July 13, 2017

Read more

I love lighthouses <3

July 7, 2017

I love lighthouses. And here I am showing you a couple of pics of one of my favourite lighthouses: The one at Lotseninsel on the Baltic Sea coast. I spent…

Read more

Playing with water

January 10, 2017

Sometimes playing with water is all you need to make you happy. Like on this gorgeous day last December at Möhne Reservoir, the largest artificial lake in western Germany: That…

Read more

Blog post no 500 or: My book has just been published! #superproud

December 8, 2016

I wrote “Let’s go wave-watching! Discovering oceanography on every stroll” (available in both german and English!) for my god-daughter Pauline and her parents. Pauline wasn’t even six months old then, but…

Read more

Summer holidays! :-)

August 9, 2016

This summer, I went sailing the way I used to when I was still a teenager: At Ratzeburger Segelschule. And because I had such a great time, I have to share…

Read more

Help me name my book!

June 16, 2016

If you like my blog, you will LOVE my book. It’s an alternative travel guide: Instead of talking about sights you can see when you visit a city, I am talking…

Read more