Surface chlorophyll fields, remotely sensed by MODIS platforms AQUA and TERRA, were received on board after processing at CNR-ISAC in Rome (6 images in all, files in hdf format). This allowed the visualization of the biological situation of the study area. Figure 7 shows the AQUA image of 22 october 2008 11:15 UTC. It can be seen that most of the study area is essentially oligotrophic, a typical Fall situation, save for the Bojana River plume (center right of the image) and the coatal Albanian waters. Most probably, the high chlorophyll signal in the image is due to a mix of primary production and riverine sediment, CDOM loads (Case II waters) contribution to surface radiance variability. In situ data (e.g. chlorophyll, geochemical and bio-optical data) will be analyzed in order to determine the percentages of the signal due to these two components in order to set up a chlorophyll algorithm for such waters, in which the signal due to phytoplankton is masked/confused by suspended and dissolved matter.
figure
