Articles | Volume 18, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-1307-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-1307-2026
Data description article
 | 
19 Feb 2026
Data description article |  | 19 Feb 2026

Optical complexity of North Sea, Baltic Sea, and adjacent coastal and inland waters derived from Sentinel-3 OLCI satellite data

Martin Hieronymi, Daniel Behr, Shun Bi, and Rüdiger Röttgers

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Organic carbon pathways across the fluvial-marine transition zone of the Mackenzie River Delta – Beaufort Sea region and implications on ocean color remote sensing
Annabeth McCall, Martin Hieronymi, P. Paul Overduin, Lisa Bröder, Julie Lattaud, Rüdiger Röttgers, Irina Overeem, Anne Morgenstern, Guido Grosse, and Bennet Juhls
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-997,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-997, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Biogeosciences (BG).
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Cited articles

Albert, M. F. M. A., Anguelova, M. D., Manders, A. M. M., Schaap, M., and de Leeuw, G.: Parameterization of oceanic whitecap fraction based on satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 13725–13751, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13725-2016, 2016. 
Ansper-Toomsalu, A., Uusõue, M., Kangro, K., Hieronymi, M., and Alikas, K.: Suitability of different in-water algorithms for eutrophic and absorbing waters applied to Sentinel-2 MSI and Sentinel-3 OLCI data, Front. Remote Sens., 5, 1423332, https://doi.org/10.3389/frsen.2024.1423332, 2024. 
Atwood, E. C., Jackson, T., Laurenson, A., Jönsson, B. F., Spyrakos, E., Jiang, D., Sent, G., Selmes, N., Simis, S., Danne, O., Tyler, A., and Groom, S.: Framework for Regional to Global Extension of Optical Water Types for Remote Sensing of Optically Complex Transitional Water Bodies, Remote Sens., 16, 3267, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173267, 2024. 
Balch, W. M. and Mitchell, C.: Remote sensing algorithms for particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) and the global cycle of PIC, Earth-Sci. Rev., 239, 104363, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104363, 2023. 
Begouen Demeaux, C., Boss, E., Graff, J. R., Behrenfeld, M. J., and Westberry, T. K.: Phytoplanktonic photoacclimation under clouds, Geophys. Res. Let., 52, e2024GL112274, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112274, 2025. 
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Short summary
We present a scientific description of a satellite-based dataset and its novel processing chain. The dataset provides water quality parameters for lakes, rivers, coastal waters, as well as the entire North Sea and Baltic Sea. It further includes a novel estimate of organic carbon across diverse water bodies and the results of an optical water type classification. The dataset and its underlying algorithm provide a valuable foundation for future oceanographic and limnological analyses.
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