The lowering of the Dead Sea lake level resulting in a shift-back of the Dead Sea shoreline has a direct impact on tourism at the Dead Sea. Every couple of months, the beaches infrastructure (showers, lifeguards …) has to be moved several meters in the direction of the receding shoreline. The meteorological measurements of DESERVE are affected by the shift-back of the Dead Sea shoreline too. Since March 2014, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is operating an energy balance station at the Dead Sea to measure the evaporation of the Dead Sea water body. The measurements are based on the eddy covariance technique, with which the water vapour flux can be measured directly.

In February 2014 the energy balance station was erected directly at the shoreline. Temporarily, the station was even flooded. However, the Dead Sea is continuously shrinking. The average annual drop of the water level is 1.1 m. In August 2014, the Dead Sea level dropped by 13 cm, and reached the level of -428.47 m on 1/9/2014 (Hydrology Institute Report published on Sept. 1st 2014). As a result, the energy balance station was about 40 meters away from the shore line in April 2015.

For this reason, the station had to be moved by 40 meters to the shoreline in April 2015 by a team of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

View the measurements here.

Timeline