Neukermans, G.

Ruddick, K.

Vanhellemont, Q.

Open Marine Archive

 - 100 -  
Remote sensing of suspended sediment in the North Sea at high 
spatial and temporal resolution 
Vanhellemont Quinten
1
, Griet Neukermans
2
 and Kevin Ruddick
1
 
1
 Management Unit of the North Sea Mathemathical Models (MUMM), Royal Belgian Institute for 
Natural Sciences (RBINS), 100 Gulledelle, 1200 Brussels, Belgium  
E-mail: quinten.vanhellemont@mumm.ac.be  
2
 Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San 
Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA 
 
Suspended matter concentrations (SPM) in the North Sea have been observed by ocean colour 
sensors for over a decade. These sensors are installed on polar orbiting satellites that typically 
provide data once per day, with cloud cover further reducing the available data. In Belgian waters a 
wide swath polar orbiting satellite typically has around 50 cloud-free observations annually. While 
the number of observations provided by these sensors is much higher than what is possible by 
using classical methods, high frequency processes, such as tidal resuspension, are completely 
missed by the satellite. 
 
Sensors in a geostationary orbit appear to be in a fixed position in the sky and can deliver much 
higher frequency data. The main uses for the geostationary orbit are telecommunication services 
and weather satellites. SEVIRI, a meteorological sensor on a geostationary weather satellite, 
provides data every 15 minutes for a viewing disk centred on the 0° meridian. Data from this 
sensor’s broad red band was used to observe SPM in the North Sea by Neukermans et al. (2009), 
and for the first time, the high frequency dynamics of SPM was revealed on a large spatial scale. 
Because SEVIRI lacks green and blue spectral bands it is limited to observe SPM or related 
parameters, such as turbidity and the attenuation of light in the water column. A number of 
problems were identified when looking at the seas that can be linked to the sensor’s design – which 
was fine for its intended applications (a.o. cloud and ice monitoring). 
 
In this study, we combined the marine reflectance data from SEVIRI with that from MODIS Aqua, a 
polar orbiter, in a synergy product that is an improvement over both data sources. The temporal 
frequency of the synergy product is much better than that of MODIS, and by using the latter’s high 
quality data, the limited spatial and radiometric resolution of SEVIRI is enhanced (Vanhellemont et 
al., 2012, submitted). 
 
In 2010, the first geostationary ocean colour satellite (GOCI) was launched with a similar spectral 
configuration as SeaWiFS, and now provides hourly data for the waters around Korea, China and 
Japan. Due to the nature of the geostationary orbit, every sensor can only cover a given region, and 
a set of five sensors would be needed for global cover (Ruddick et al., 2012, submitted). The 
European and American space agencies are planning for geostationary ocean colour sensors to 
monitor their seas to improve information on the marine environment. The cost of increasing the 
spatial resolution of a geostationary sensor is very high, but this study illustrates that a lower 
resolution geostationary ocean colour sensor combined with a high resolution polar orbiting sensor, 
can provide a high frequency synergetic product with high spatial resolution. 
 
 
References
Neukermans G., K.G. Ruddick, E. Bernard,D. Ramon, B. Nechad and P. Deschamps. 2009. Mapping 
total suspended matter from geostationary satellites: a feasibility study with SEVIRI in the 
Southern North Sea. Optics Express, 17(16):14029−14052. 
Ruddick K., G. Neukermans and Q. Vanhellemont. 2012. (submitted). The future for geostationary 
ocean colour remote sensing of regional seas. Remote Sensing of the Environment. 
Vanhellemont Q., G. Neukermans and K. Ruddick. 2012. (submitted). Synergy between polar-
orbiting and geostationary sensors: Remote sensing of the ocean at high spatial and high 
temporal resolution. Remote Sensing of the Environment. 


Remote sensing of suspended sediment in the North Sea at high spatial and temporal resolution

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Open Marine Archive