Routine water quality services for the Baltic Sea (GMES MarCoast) Carsten Brockmann 1 , Kerstin Stelzer 1 , Monique Viel 2 , Antoine Mangin 3 , Jacob V. Tornfeldt-Sørensen 4 , Tapani Stipa 5 , Andreas Neumann 6 , Harald Krawczyk 6 , Araceli Pi Figueroa 7 , Gordon Campbell 8 , Jerome Bruniquel 9 1 Brockmann Consult, Max-Planck-Str. 2, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany 2 Planetek Italia, Italia, Via Massaua 12, 70123 Bari, Italy 3 ACRI-ST 260, route du Pin Montard, 06904 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex France 4 DHI, Agern Allee 5, 2970 Horsholm, Denmark 5 Finnish Institute for Marine Research, Erik Palménin aukio 1, 00561 Helsinki, Finnland 6 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Rutherfordstr. 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany 7 Starlab Barcelona S.L, Edifici de l'Observatori Fabra, Cami a l'Observatori, 08035 Barcelona, Spain 8 ESA ESRIN, Via Galileo Galilei, 00044 Frascati, Italy 9 Thales-Alenia Space, 26, avenue Jean-François Champollion, 31037 Toulouse Cedex 1, France Abstract- The Baltic Sea is subject to various European environmental regulations which aim at securing its long-term protection. This will be achieved by the accompanying monitoring programmes associated with, for example, the HELCOM convention, the EC Water Framework Directive, the Natura 2000 Directives and the upcoming European Maritime Policy, to name the most important regulatory policies. These monitoring programmes demand large scale, frequent and accurate measurements of physical, biological and chemical parameters. GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) is a major activity of the European Union and Commission which aims at providing operational services by making the best use of spaceborne earth observation data, in-situ observations and models. MarCoast is the GMES Service Element Project addressing the marine environment and is funded by the European Space Agency. MarCoast is providing Marine and Coastal Services for international, regional and national end users. The project is driven solely by these end users, which include mainly public bodies in charge of the marine environment, such as, for example, the European Environmental Agency (EEA), the European Maritime Security Agency (EMSA) or the German Federal and Maritime Hydrographic Agency (BSH). The MarCoast service portfolio includes oil spill detection and polluter identification as well as water quality products and services. The latter comprises monitoring the water quality with respect to European regulations as above, monitoring and alerting of algal blooms and the monitoring of large scale water quality indicators. The production chain of MarCoast begins with ENVISAT MERIS and Aqua MODIS data for the ocean colour products and AATSR data for sea surface temperature. The satellite data are downloaded from the space agencies and routinely processed to provide basic data sets of key parameters on a common grid. A merged MODIS and MERIS data product is produced at 1km. MERIS Full Resolution data (300m) complement the basic data. The service providers combine the basic data with in-situ data, integrate them into forecasting models or perform data analysis and statistical evaluation. Validation plays a key role for the acceptance of the satellite derived products by the end users. The accuracy of the products and the reliability of the service are regularly evaluated by the Validation Bureau, which is an independent entity within the project. I. INTRODUCTION Marine and Coastal management activities are regulated by International and European laws implemented through National Legislation. A defined set of parameters has to be observed and forecasts have to be provided in order to protect the environment, to mitigate threats and to monitor the development of the ecological state of the seas. The Baltic Sea is subject to, amongst others, the following international and national laws, conventions, and directives: Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area (The Helsinki Convention, [1]). This was adopted in 1992, and entered into force on 17 January 2000. Its governing body is the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, also known as HELCOM. The Helsinki Convention covers the whole Baltic Sea area, including inland waters as well as the water of the sea itself and the sea-bed. Measures are also taken in the whole catchments area of the Baltic Sea to reduce sources of land-based pollution. Integrated Maritime Policy [2]. In October 2007, the European Commission adopted a Communication setting out its vision for an Integrated Maritime Policy for the EU, together with a detailed action plan setting out an ambitious work programme for the years ahead. Water Framework Directive (WFD) [3] is a European Union directive which commits member states to making all water bodies (surface, estuarine and groundwater) of good qualitative and quantitative status by the year 2015. It describes the steps necessary to reach this common goal rather than adopting the more traditional limit value approach. This is generally acknowledged to be an assimilation of the Aarhus Convention. OPRC (International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response) [4]: Adopted in November 1990, it is designed to help Governments combat major oil pollution incidents by facilitating international co-operation and mutual assistance in preparing for and responding to major oil