Case studies of optical remote sensing in the Barents sea, Black sea and Caspian sea

Abstract

Examples of variability of the bio-optical characteristics in the Barents, Black and Caspian Seas derived from SeaWiFS data in 1998-2005 are presented and analyzed. A common feature of these seas is high freshwater inflow, all of the seas are classified with Case 2 waters. Optical remote sensing of them requires modified processing algorithms regionally adapted. Some interesting phenomena were revealed from satellite data in the seas under study: coccolithophore blooms in the Black Sea and the Middle Barents, sharp increase of chlorophyll concentration and particle backscattering in the Caspian Sea in July-August 2001 attributed to a consequence of invasion of the ctenophore Mnepiopsis leidyi. The joint analysis of satellite and in situ measured data was carried out to explain the above-mentioned phenomena. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.