Dust impact on radiative transfer, optical
properties and phytoplankton development - Improved analyses and
synthesis in cooperation with other sub-projects
During dust storms Saharan dust is deposited in the ocean and can potentially change the biological productivity and phytoplankton composition by their fertilizer properties. The dust particles in the water interact with the solar radiation by their absorption and scattering properties which can enhance the turbidity and can decrease the penetration depth of solar radiation. The interactions between dust and ocean and their feedbacks are only partly understood. Therefore, the remote sensing group of the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research investigates the Sahara dust impact on optical water properties and phytoplankton development within the SOPRAN project.
The main questions in the third phase of this project are:
The project will deliver the following products:
Fig.1: Examples of a dust storm and a phytoplankton bloom in the study area.
Different scientific instruments are used in the framework of our project. We
acknowledge the use of rapid response MODIS (Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer) imagery from the land atmosphere near-real
time capability for EOS (LANCE) system operated by the earth science data and
information system (ESDIS) with funding provided by NASA (earthdata.nasa.gov) and
the use of MODIS data of the ocean color web (oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov).
PI's: H. Siegel, T. Ohde Contact: Thomas Ohde (thomas.ohde@io-warnemuende.de) |