Vanhellemont, Q.

Open Marine Archive

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A near-shore phytoplankton bloom in Belgian waters observed 
from space 
Vanhellemont Quinten
1 
1
 REMSEM, OD Nature, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Gulledelle 100, 1200 Brussels, 
Belgium 
E-mail: quinten.vanhellemont@naturalsciences.be  
 
With the launch of the first Sentinel-2 (S2) satellite on June 23, 2015, the capabilities of space-borne 
remote sensing of coastal and inland water quality improved considerably. A single S2 satellite has a 
revisit time of 10 days globally, but can observe the Belgian coast twice in every 10 day period. A 
second S2 unit will be launched in 2017, effectively doubling this revisit frequency. The main imager 
on board of S2, the MultiSpectral Imager (MSI), has a spatial resolution of 10-60 m and is hence able to 
resolve small features in surface turbidity of aquatic ecosystems. Moreover, thanks to the inclusion of a 
spectral band at the red spectral edge, the chlorophyll a absorption in the red can be quantified. In the 
past year, the mapping of chlorophyll a concentration at 20 m spatial resolution with S2 imagery has 
been demonstrated by various teams. 
 
Here we present the discovery of a near-shore phytoplankton bloom that occurred early May 2016 in 
the very near-shore part of the Belgian coastal zone, in front of the port of Oostende. The satellite 
image reveals a bloom with an extremely high chlorophyll a concentration. This kind of bloom would 
be very difficult to detect with ship-borne measurements, due to the bloom location and extent, and 
the shallowness of the water. Traditional ocean colour satellites lack the required spatial resolution to 
resolve these near-shore events. With a five or ten day revisit time, and these novel chlorophyll and 
suspended sediment mapping capabilities, the S2 mission will contribute significantly to the 
understanding of near-shore phytoplankton dynamics and sediment transport not only in Belgian 
waters, but also globally. S2 derived data will be of significant importance for the near-shore 
monitoring required by the European Water Framework Directive. 
 
Keywords: coastal zone; remote sensing; phytoplankton bloom; chlorophylla  


A near-shore phytoplankton bloom in Belgian waters observed from space

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