Europe celebrates its first Maritime Day (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

20 May 2008

Europe celebrates its first Maritime Day

The first-ever 'European Maritime Day' is being celebrated across Europe
today to highlight the crucial role oceans and seas play in the everyday
lives of EU citizens and to raise awareness of the opportunities and
challenges facing the sector.

With nearly 70 000 km of coastline, two oceans and four seas, Europe's
maritime policy is key to safeguarding ocean ecosystems and coastal regions
while at the same time ensuring maritime and coastal economies. Addressing
these competing challenges, the European Commission (EC) adopted an
Integrated Maritime Policy for the EU last October.

Under the European Space Policy, ESA is responsible for implementing space
capabilities that respond to EU policy needs. The Integrated Maritime Policy
facilitates efficient exploitation of space systems in the maritime sector,
which ESA has been actively involved in over the last 25 years.

ESA's ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat satellites have been the main vehicles for
testing and demonstrating the feasibility of using satellite Earth
observation (EO) data in different maritime policy areas, such as Arctic
monitoring, marine environment protection, maritime border control, coastal
planning and marine research.

Arctic monitoring

Since 2003, Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument
has been used to detect icebergs in the North Atlantic to support offshore
oil production and the International Ice Patrol, which is responsible for
routine surveillance of the North Atlantic shipping lanes to ensure the risk
of collisions with icebergs is minimised.

In addition, Envisat and Radarsat data are used on an operational basis by
national ice services for the production of ice information charts to
shipping operators, which aids intra-European transport in the winter months
when the Baltic freezes.

Recently, the Arctic ice edge retreats during the summer months and the
North East passage through the Kara and Laptev Seas to China and Japan is
becoming a viable transport route, creating a need for routine monitoring of
sea ice conditions in these areas to ensure safe transit.

In such situations, Envisat has repeatedly demonstrated the cost
effectiveness of satellite imagery within the operational monitoring system.

Marine environment protection

In 2002, Envisat's ASAR sensor acquired images revealing the extent of the
Prestige oil spill in Spain. Envisat and ERS-2 imagery were then made
available to aid with international clean-up efforts, including
characterising areas expected to suffer first from beaching of the oil.

Since then, ESA has been working within the Global Monitoring for
Environment and Security (GMES) Services Element (GSE) to demonstrate and
qualify the capacity for pan-European oil spill surveillance.

In 2006, an operational satellite-based oil slick detection service based on
SAR data from Envisat and the Canadian Radarsat satellite was set up for all
European waters under the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The
service, named CleanSeaNet, provides notification of a pollution event
within 20 to 30 minutes of the satellite overpass.

By integrating the SAR oil slick information with vessel information, it
becomes possible to identify potentially responsible vessels.

Routine monitoring of water quality in European coastal areas is important
to effectively protect fragile coastal ecosystems and ensure safe
exploitation of coastal waters for fish farming, leisure and transportation.

Within the ESA GSE MARCOAST project, national and regional environmental
protection agencies are routinely provided with ocean colour-based water
quality parameters, including chlorophyll-a concentration, transparency and
suspended sediment load as well as the timely detection of algal blooms, for
integration into their operational monitoring practices.

Maritime border control

European states are under increasing responsibility to effectively control,
protect and manage their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. In
addition to monitoring their own fishing zones, they are faced with
countering illegal trafficking of persons, drugs and weapons.

The MARISS project financed under GSE is working with police, border guards,
coast guards, intelligence services and national navies as well as European
and international agencies in order to test the integration of different EO
data sets and amenable European states to extend their integrated
surveillance to areas beyond the range of traditional systems.

Coastal planning and management

Coastal zones are important environmental and economic resources that face
threats to their future, such as water pollution and eroding shorelines.

Space-based instruments can pinpoint wilderness areas under threat from
over-developments of coastal zones and enable a sustainable pattern of
development. Satellites can also track the process of coastal erosion as it
happens, and the long-term rate of loss can be estimated with years of
archived data.

Marine research

EO provides unprecedented measurements over all ocean areas, enabling
researchers to characterise physical, chemical and biological processes at a
level of detail and for time periods that were previously not feasible.

For instance, accurate measurements of sea surface height variation by the
radar altimeter instrument have provided a unique capability to monitor
variations in currents at the regional level. The Along Track Scanning
Radiometer (AATSR) series of instruments have delivered a highly accurate
time series of sea surface temperature variations over a 17-year period,
which has enabled a unique characterisation of global warming during this
time.

In addition, satellite data from the radar altimeters onboard ERS-1, ERS-2
and Envisat and NASA/CNES' Topex-Poseidon have detected a trend in sea level
rise between 2.64 and 3.29 mm/year over the last 15 years.

These capabilities are all based on EO satellites that have been in
operation for some time, and ESA is working to ensure continuity of these
key data streams within the framework of GMES with its upcoming Sentinel and
Earth Explorer missions.

[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMZ811YUFF_environment_1.html ]
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