Ruddick, K.G.

Vanhellemont, Q.

Open Marine Archive

A gridded archive of remote sensing data for Belgian waters 
Vanhellemont Quinten and Kevin Ruddick 
Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM), Royal Belgian Institute for Natural 
Sciences (RBINS), 100 Gulledelle, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium 
E-mail: quinten.vanhellemont@mumm.ac.be  
Polar orbiting satellites with high quality moderate resolution, multi-spectral sensors have been 
capturing the state of the world’s oceans for almost fifteen years. Here we present an archive of all 
data available for the Belgian waters and the Southern North Sea (50.8°-52.1°N; 0.5°-4.0°E) from the 
SeaWiFS, MODIS Aqua and MERIS sensors, collocated on a common one kilometre grid (details on 
gridding and data processing given in Vanhellemont et al., 2011; Vanhellemont and Ruddick, 2011). 
Parameters that can be derived from the colour of the ocean include chlorophyll a concentration, 
turbidity and total suspended matter concentration (Nechad et al., 2009; 2010), and more recently 
the attenuation of light and photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) in the water column (Lee et 
al., 2005, Wang et al., 2009) and euphotic zone depth (Lee et al., 2007). Thanks to bands in the 
thermal infrared, MODIS can also be used to determine sea surface temperature. 
 
Time-series of these parameters can be extracted from the archive for any point in the region. Multi-
temporal composites can be generated for different periods or seasons, and even across years. 
Match-ups with in situ data varying in space and time, such as underway data collected by research 
vessels or given sample locations, can be readily extracted and used for validation. 
 
Time-series and composites reveal an annual spring phytoplankton bloom, followed by moderate 
chlorophyll concentrations throughout summer and autumn. Spatial variability of the spring bloom 
reflects the nutrient distribution at the end of the winter, with highest concentrations near-shore. 
The satellite data shows considerable inter-annual variability, for example for spring bloom timing 
and amplitude. Suspended matter concentrations also show a strong annual cycle, with highest 
concentrations in winter, related to wind-induced resuspension. Spatial variability of the suspended 
matter is highly correlated to water depth. The sea surface temperature shows a strong annual 
cycle, obviously related to solar heating. Spatial variability is strongest in spring and autumn, due to 
differences in water depth of the near-coast and offshore waters, i.e. shallow waters heat and cool 
faster. The inter-annual variability of sea surface temperature is also analysed. 
 
A dataset of this scope is useful for sediment transport and ecosystem modelers, but also for 
monitoring, management, and general marine science. The data archive is available for any 
interested parties, and an extraction interface for time-series is provided on our website. 
 
References 
Lee Z.P., A. Weidemann, J. Kindle, R. Arnone, K.L. Carder and C. Davis. 2007. Euphotic zone depth: 
Its derivation and implication to ocean-color remote sensing. Journal of Geophysical Research 
112:C03009.  
Nechad B., K. Ruddick and G. Neukermans. 2009. Calibration and validation of a generic 
multisensor algorithm for mapping of turbidity in coastal waters. In: SPIE ‘Remote Sensing of 
the Ocean, Sea Ice, and Large Water Regions’ Conference held in Berlin (Germany), 31 August 
2009. Proc. SPIE 7473:74730H. 
Nechad B., K. Ruddick and Y. Park. 2010. Calibration and validation of a generic multisensor 
algorithm for mapping of total suspended matter in turbid waters. Remote Sensing of 
Environment 114:854–866. 
Vanhellemont Q. and K. Ruddick. 2011. Generalized satellite image processing: eight years of ocean 
colour data for any region on earth. Proc. SPIE 8175:81750Q. doi:10.1117/12.898300  
Vanhellemont Q., B. Nechad and K. Ruddick. 2011. GRIMAS: Gridding and archiving of satellite-
derived ocean colour data for any region on earth. In: Proceedings of the CoastGIS 2011 
conference held in Ostend, 5 - 8 September, 2011. 
Wang M., S. Son, and L.W. Harding, Jr. 2009. Retrieval of diffuse attenuation coefficient in the 
Chesapeake Bay and turbid ocean regions for satellite ocean color applications. Journal of 
Geophysical Research 114:C10011. doi:10.1029/2009JC005286. 
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A gridded archive of remote sensing data for Belgian waters

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Open Marine Archive