Sea-Land biogeochemical linkages (Baltic+ SeaLaBio)

The Sentinel satellites of the Copernicus programme offer an excellent opportunity for monitoring the state of the Baltic Sea. The current constellation provides daily coverage in moderate resolution (S3 OLCI with 300 m pixels) and twice-weekly coverage in high resolution (S2 MSI with 10-60 m pixels) with spectral characteristics suitable for estimating turbidity, Chlorophyll a and CDOM. These are related to the land-to-sea fluxes of carbon that occur in coastal zones. With this in mind the goal of the ESA funded project Baltic+ SeaLaBio (Sea-Land Biogeochemical linkages, from 2018 to 2020) was to develop methods for assessing carbon dynamics and eutrophication in the Baltic Sea through integrated use of EO, models, and ground-based data.

The project has now ended. As a summary of the impacts, the developments done in the SeaLaBio project have advanced the state-of-the-art in three important fields:

1. Biogeochemical modelling: The ERGOM model can now utilize EO based aCDOM values as input data and, as a result, provide more reliable estimates of light attenuation in water, which potentially provides more realistic simulations of several other state variables. This has consequences especially in the norther parts of the Baltic Sea where CDOM has a large effect on water transparency.
2. EO data processing: A new method for atmospheric correction of satellite images – based on combining the advantages of Polymer & C2RCC – can now provide more reliable water leaving reflectance values. This is a major step towards the formulation of an optimal AC for the Baltic Sea. A band ratio algorithm based on Baltic+ AC results was established and provided better aCDOM values than the other current processors.
3. Use of EO for monitoring carbon fluxes: EO based data can e.g. provide information about the Total Organic Carbon loads from rivers.

For more details, please see the documents in the Results section of this website. The data we have generated is publicly available. See the Data access section for details.

The project is under ESAs EO4society programme and part of the Baltic Regional Initiative activities. It is also linked to the Baltic Earth community. 

Workplan 

The following schematic shows the work packages of the project and the interaction between them.

WP Schedule

The project kick-off was in Dec. 2018. The Final Review has been moved to Sept. 2020. Below you can find the timings of the WPs.

WP1 Scientific Requirements: Dec. 2018 – Mar. 2019

WP2 Dataset collection: Mar. 2019 – June 2019

WP3 Algorithm Development and Validation Mar. 2019 – Aug. 2020

WP4 Experimental Dataset Generation and Impact Assessment: Dec. 2019 – Aug. 2020

WP5 Scientific Roadmap: Mar. 2020 – Sept. 2020

WP6 Promotion: Jan. 2019 – Sept. 2020

Results

The deliverable documents and other results of the project are available through the links in the table below.

Public project deliverables. PM stands for Progress Meeting. FR is the Final Review.

* See the DUM and the Data access section

**

Neumann, T., Koponen, S., Attila, J., Brockmann, C., Kallio, K., Kervinen, M., Mazeran, C., Müller, D., Philipson, P., Thulin, S., Väkevä, S., and Ylöstalo, P.: Optical model for the Baltic Sea with an explicit CDOM state variable: a case study with Model ERGOM (version 1.2), Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 5049–5062, 2021. 

Processor access

The atmospheric correction (AC) processor developed in the project is available in GitHub. However, its installation is rather complex and in order to provide an easier user interface a version compatible with SNAP is being developed. News about its availability will be published here.
 

Data access

The resulting datasets will be published through Syke's Tarkka map application and Web Accessible Folder (WAF).

The first set of results includes concentrations (expressed with absorption values) of Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) simulated with the Ecological Regional Ocean Model (ERGOM). In this simulation we have used river discharge and CDOM values estimated with Sentinel-2 data from 69 river mouth areas as input data. The results are visualized in TARKKA. The corresponding GeoTiff files are available in WAF.

The OLCI based EO results are also visible in old TARKKA and the WAF. These have been derived by 1st performing the atmospheric correction with the Baltic+ AC processor and the using a band ratio algorithm for the estimation of CDOM. More details about the processing will be made available in the Validation Report and Dataset User Manual while comparisons of model and EO results with in situ data will be available in the Impact Assessment Report (see the Results section).
 

Partners and Scientific Advisory Board

Finnish Environment Institute Syke under the Finnish Ministry of Environment, is a government research institute, and a center for environmental expertise. Syke's research focuses on changes in the environment, and seeks ways to control these changes. Syke conducts research on wide range of fields, from environmental policy, state of natural environment, climate change, marine and freshwater environments, to the cryosphere. A strong focus is on multi-disciplinary work and providing information, skills and services to achieving sustainable development in Finland and globally. The information produced in research and operational services are served to customers ranging from researchers in environmental administration and universities to governmental and municipal authorities as well as common citizens.

Syke is responsible for the overall coordination of the project. In addition, Syke handles the EO and in situ data collection and processing, and participates in the validation and impact analysis.

Brockmann Consult GmbH (BC) (brockmann-consult.de/) is a private company offering services for the management of environmental data in particular from Earth Observation. The company comprises two complementary branches: The Environmental Informatics Department and the Geo-Information Services Department. The company has 30 staff members and is located in Geesthacht, Germany.

BCs main role in the project is algorithm and software development.

Brockmann Geomatics (BG) is a private company of geoinformatic consultants, offering services comprising information products and methodological solutions, based on remote sensing and GIS technology, with focus on natural objects with high conservation value. The company was established in March 2011 but the personnel are experienced remote sensing, GIS and environmental specialists with vast experience in the field. BG has five employees of which four have doctorates.

BG leads the impact analysis part of the project and participates in the validation of EO and model data.

SOLVO is an innovative microenterprise providing consultancy services since 2013 in mathematical modelling and algorithmics. Its main activity deals with remote-sensing from space, with a focus on sensor calibration, algorithm development and uncertainty assessment. The scientific staff of SOLVO currently involved in Baltic+ comprises Dr Constant Mazeran (founder, PhD in applied mathematics).

SOLVOs main role in the project is algorithm development for atmospheric correction.

The Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (in short: IOW) is a public research institute. The IOW´s mission is to conduct interdisciplinary marine research in coastal seas, with special emphasis on the Baltic Sea. Research at the IOW focuses on observations and modelling of ecosystem changes and their underlying processes in marginal seas and shelf regions. It aims to acquire an in-depth understanding of the functions of the ecosystem with the overall objective to differentiate between natural variability and anthropogenically triggered changes.

IOWs role in the project is to do the required modifications to their ERGOM biogeochemical model, run the model and participate in the impact analysis.

Scientific Advisory Board

• Karl Norling, Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management
• Harri Kuosa, Finnish Environment Institute
• Vivi Fleming, Finnish Environment Institute
• Prof. Anna Rutgersson, Uppsala University
• Hajo Krasemann, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht
• Lena Kritten, Free University of Berlin  
• Juergen Fischer, Free University of Berlin
   

Internal (workspace)

This is a password protected workspace for the project

Link to Tiimeri Workspace: https://tila.tiimeri.fi/sites/sykesealabio/

Current

•    New scientific paper about the project results published (Aug 16, 2021)
•    Newsletter about the final results of the project (Jan 22, 2021)
•    Project to present results at the ESA-Baltic Earth Workshop on Earth Observation in the Baltic Sea region (Aug 31, 2020)
•    The first EO results have been published in TARKKA. (Aug 31, 2020)
•    Two user consultation events took place in June and July 2020. (Aug 31, 2020)
•    The first ERGOM results have been published in TARKKA. (May 27, 2020)