Remote Sensing of Coastal Water Quality in the Baltic Sea Using MERIS

Abstract

Remote sensing of water quality parameters using spaceborne imaging spectrome-ters has become a widely spread technology during the last years. Especially MERIS on ESA’s ENVISAT with its 250m spatial resolution provides new oppor-tunities for applications in coastal and inland waters. To make use of the informa-tion content of spectrally highly resolved data new retrieval algorithms had to be developed based on bio-optical and radiative transfer modeling and inversion by the use of principal component analysis. The paper will review the approaches and algorithms developed at DLR for research and operational applications to assess and monitor water quality in case-2 waters (coastal and inland waters). Special fo-cus will be on yellow substance dominated waters and exceptional algal blooms in the Baltic Sea. In addition to the methodological aspect the processing system and infrastructure to provide daily water quality services in the frames of GMES will be introduced.