MINESTRONE - Optical MonItoriNg and rEmote Sensing of parTiculate caRbOn in the North Sea

Context and objectives

The impact of particulate carbon on the carbon budget of the southern North Sea is not yet appropriately quantified. Particulate carbon occurs in organic (organisms, debries) and inorganic form (calcium carbonate), derived from biogenic production. This particulate form accounts for only a fraction of the total carbon stored in the ocean; however, it is the main vector for removal of carbon from the surface waters due to particle sinking and burial in the sediment bed. While estimation of particulate carbon standing stocks can be accurately performed with in situ measurements, the high spatio-temporal variability of this standing stock (due to tides, storms, riverine input, lateral transport) requires an extensive network for proper representation. While remote sensing provides the capability for frequent large spatial coverage, algorithms for remote sensing estimation of particulate carbon are not yet mature in optically complex and turbid environments, due to the confounding signal of mineral particles other than particulate inorganic carbon (PIC). The MINESTRONE project proposes to develop new algorithms for estimation of particulate organic carbon (POC) and PIC over the southern North Sea from multispectral remote sensing data. The developed algorithms will then be applied to evaluate the time series evolution of the particulate carbon standing stock.