North Thyrrhenian Sea Monitoring through a Combined Use of In Situ, Satellite Data and Regional Ocean Models

Ocean dynamics at regional and coastal scales need adequate description of small scale phenomena such as sub-mesoscale vorticity, coastal upwelling, river-sea interaction etc. No methodology is self-sufficient in providing proper reconstruction of the water quality parameters at such spatial scales: the integration of in situ and remote sensing data with hydrodynamic models is nowadays the basis of most operational oceanographic systems even on regional and limited coastal areas. A prototypal tool for marine monitoring in the North Tyrrhenian area is being implemented in the framework of the EU-funded project MOMAR, leaded by Tuscan Regional Government. This paper describes the ongoing work to develop a regional operational system for marine monitoring of the North Tyrrhenian and Ligurian Sea area, based on remote sensing and ocean modelling. The satellite remote sensing component of the project mainly focuses on chlorophyll (from MODIS and MERIS) and SST (from MSG) measurements, via algorithms calibrated for the area of interest. An oceanographic model (based on the ROMS code) is being implemented at 400 m over the Tuscany area, with the aim of describing the physical and biogeochemical variability typical of such coastal regions.