The integration of remotely sensed, seatruth and modelled data in the investigation of mesoscale features in the Baltic coastal phytoplankton field

Abstract Specific features observed in the Baltic coastal phytoplankton field are investigated in this work. The features are initially described by the means of Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) level-3 imagery processed within the Ocean Colour European Archive Network (OCEAN) Project and indexed for the Baltic region. The observations made are further supported by other remotely sensed data, namely Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data where channel 1 is used as an indicator of turbidity and channel 4 is used as an indicator of thermal structure. Furthermore, to describe the three-dimensional ecosystem structure of the features, modelling and a database of in situ hydrological, hydrooptical and acoustical observations are included in the investigation. A full dynamic ecosystem description can be achieved from remotely sensed and sea truth data assimilation by integrating them with a coupled ecodynamics-hydrodynamics model. Here a simple three-component phytoplankton-zooplanktonnutrients ...