Coastal monitoring and forecasting systems in Finland by FIMR

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Coastal monitoring and forecasting systems in
Finland by FIMR

• Pekka Alenius
• Leading scientist
• Finnish Institute of Marine Research
• POL Workshop
• Mallorca 22.-24.10.2007

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Authorities that do coastal observations in
Finland

• In Finland there are several authorities doing
  coastal observations. Among these are
• Finnish Institute of Marine Research (FIMR)
• Finnish Environment Institute (FEI)
• Regional Environment Centres (13 of which 6 at
  coasts)
• Environment centres of big cities
• This presentation concentrates on the activities
  of FIMR which is the main Finnish actor in (open)
  sea monitoring.

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Observation and forecasting activities of FIMR

• Sea level
• Surface waves
• Ice
• Hydrography (T S)
• Cyano-bacterial biomass
• Nutrients
• Ecosystem
• http//www.fimr.fi/en.html

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Sea level observations

• FIMR has 13 sea level stations
• Oldest in Hanko since 1887
• In Helsinki since 1904
• Youngest in Rauma since 1933
• Observation interval 1 minute
• Real-time data transfer to FIMR
• Temperature is measured, too
• See http//www.itameriportaali.fi/en/
• itamerinyt/en_GB/vedenkorkeus/

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Sea level forecasts

• -Three models (old, Wetehinen, OAAS)
• -Meteorological input from HIRLAM (54 h forecasts
  and ECMWF up to 10 day forecasts)
• -Two different boundary conditions in the Danish
  Straits
• -Each model is run four times a day (every 6
  hours)
• -Software for estimating the forecast from
  ensemble of model results
• -Manmade forecasts are done if ordered by
  customers

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Example of the sea level forecast screen
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Surface waves

• Observations at Northern Baltic Proper (1) and
  near Helsinki (2)
• Wave height
• Map of the Baltic Sea
• 1.Northern Baltic Proper 5915 N 2100 E
• Significant wave height 0.7 m
• Highest individual wave 1.3 m
• Sea surface temperature 11.3 C
• 22.10.2007 at 1800 UTC
• See http//www.itameriportaali.fi/en/itamerinyt/e
  n_GB/aallonkorkeus/

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Wave forecasts

• http//www.itameriportaali.fi/en/itamerinyt/en_GB/
  aallonkorkeus/
• http//www.itameriportaali.fi/en/itamerinyt/en_GB/
  aaltoennuste/

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Ice in the Baltic Sea
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What ice means to Finland

• The Baltic Sea ice seasons in 3 severity classes
• Mild season All Finnish harbours are icebound
• Average season Ice from the north lat. of
  Stockholm
• Severe season Baltic Sea is almost or totally
  frozen

Ice for 6-7 months
3 weeks
3-4 months
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Finnish Ice Service

• -Observations
• -Remote sensing algorithm development
• -Forecasts
• -Serves winter navigation in close cooperation
  with Finnish Board of Navigation

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Finnish PolarView products

• -SAR based ice thickness charts
• spatial resolution 500x500 m
• End users shipping
• 30 minutes after the SAR image is downloaded
• On the average 160 charts in an ice season

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Ice forecasts pagehttp//haavi.fimr.fi/polarview/
forecast.php

• -Ice motion and concentration
• -Mean ice thickness
• -Ridged ice thickness
• -Ridged ice concentration
• -Compressive region
• -Deformed ice fraction
• -Area
• FROM
• -Northern Baltic Sea
• -Bay of Bothnia
• -Gulf of Finland

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Alg_at_line - Operational Monitoring of the Baltic
Sea

• Alg_at_line monitors the fluctuations in the Baltic
  Sea ecosystem in real-time using several
  approaches
• -research vessels
• -high-frequency automated sampling onboard
  several merchant ships
• -satellite imagery
• -buoy recordings
• -traditional sampling in coastal waters
• Without the high-frequent observations with the
  ship-of-opportunity technique, the rapid
  fluctuations in the Baltic Sea ecosystem could
  not be monitored

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What Alg_at_line ishttp//www.itameriportaali.fi/en/
levatiedotus/en_GB/levatiedotus/

• -Alg_at_line is the only research project in the
  Baltic Sea region, which utilizes the
  ship-of-opportunity technique in the monitoring
  of the state of the environment on this scale.
  Alg_at_line has analyzers and sample collectors on
  five ships.
• -The information based on the unattended
  recordings on the ships is available to anyone on
  Internet at Baltic Sea Portal and on Internet
  pages of the Finnish Institute of Marine Research
  at Baltic Sea Now
• -Monitoring research of Alg_at_line is on the
  highest level of its field. This has been made
  possible through unique cooperation with Finnish
  and foreign research institutes and scientific
  communities.

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Alg_at_line SOOP measurements and routes

• Equipment onboard
• - flow through fluorometer
• - thermosalinograph
• - GPS navigator
• - computer
• - refridgerated water sampler
• Parameters onboard
• latitude, longitude, date, time
• - in vivo chlorophyll a fluorescence
• - temperature,salinity
• On laboratory
• - chlorophyll a
• phytoplankton species composition
• and relative abundances
• - phosphate and total phosphorus
• - ammonium, nitrate and total nitrogen
• - silicate
• - partly turbidity

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Alg_at_line exampleFinnmaid 17 - 18 October 2007

• SST (red) and SSS (blue)
• Chl-a
• along the route of the ferry Finnmaid (Travemünde
  - Helsinki).

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BalEco - A range of brackish water ecosystem
models

• BalEco is a suite of ecological models
• for the description of brackish water ecosystems,
• with the Baltic Sea especially in mind.
• Brackish waters are demanding biological
  environments, and require a special treatment to
  capture the salinity adaptation of marine and
  freshwater organisms.

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BalEco1

• BalEco1, the first level model, is embedded in a
  prototype for a scientific forecasting system of
  the Baltic Sea.
• The system builds on well-established,
  scientifically validated models and boundary
  conditions where available
• Combines them with observation-derived state
  estimates to arrive at routine short-term
  forecasts of the Baltic Sea state.
• The short-term forecasts are used for model
  validation purposes and ecosystem predictability
  studies.

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Ecosystem model forecasts

• - Temperature, salinity, cyanobacterial biomass

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Bluegreen algae prognosis

• -Is done annually after winter monitoring cruise
• -joint effort of FIMR and FEI
• -published eg. in Alg_at_line pages

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Monitoring cruises by rv Aranda

• -four annual monitoring cruises to the Baltic Sea
• -chemical monitoring in January
• -zoobenthos and oxygen in May-June
• -cyanobacterial blooms/biology in August
• -chemical monitoring in December
• -other scientific cruises in between
• Aranda in the web http//www.fimr.fi/en/aranda.ht
  ml

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Example of usefulness of monitoring
cruisesAmerican comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi)

• The sudden spreading in the northern Baltic Sea
  has surprised nearly everyone.
• the population density was as high as 600
  individuals per square metre.
• was found to be extremely adaptable It can
  reproduce in the northern Baltic Sea in colder
  conditions than previously observed.

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FIMR-BMP
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Choose data
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Access to products
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Algaline page
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PolarView page