Remote Sensing of Water Quality in Coastal Zones on the Example of MERIS Data in the Baltic Sea

Abstract

The assessment of the ecological state is an important issue for coastal zone management. Due to to the optical complexity of coastal waters compared to the open ocean, more sophisticated instruments and algorithms are necessary to meet the challenge. Remote sensing has the advantage to obtain the information on a regular time scale, nearly daily and globally for large areas. Within the MAPP project (MERIS Application and Regional Products Project) a remote sensing interpretation algorithm was developed specifically adapted to the properties of the Baltic Sea. It allows in near real time the computation of concentration maps of phytoplankton, sediment and yellow substance. This is an important presumption for the detection and prediction of harmful algae blooms. The algorithm is based on principal component analysis and is an optimal noise suppressing multispectral interpretation technique. It belongs to the model based inversion methods and uses specific optical properties of the baltic sea water. The used models and inversion method will be reviewed and demonstrated on the investigation of a time series of available MERIS data from 2003/2004. A time series of pigment concentrations of the area will be demonstrated and put a first statistical analysis.