Methods in Oceanography 3–4 (2012) 25–39 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Methods in Oceanography journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mio Full length article Weather and climate induced spatial variability of surface suspended particulate matter concentration in the North Sea and the English Channel Michael Fettweis a,∗ , Jaak Monbaliu b , Matthias Baeye a , Bouchra Nechad a , Dries Van den Eynde a a Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM), Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Gulledelle 100, 1200 Brussels, Belgium b Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Hydraulics Laboratory, Kasteelpark Arenberg 40, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium article info Article history: Received 12 June 2012 Received in revised form 11 September 2012 Accepted 13 November 2012 Available online 21 December 2012 abstract Images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite have been used to investigate the meteorologi- cal and climate induced variability of suspended particulate mat- ter (SPM) concentration in the North Sea. The meteorology has been characterized by the 11 weather types deduced from a re- fined system of Lamb’s classification of synoptic weather charts. Climatological effects have been related to the North Atlantic Os- cillation index. The surface SPM concentration maps from MODIS have been ensemble averaged according to these weather types or climatological conditions. The data show that each type has a distinct distribution of surface SPM concentration in the North Sea. The differences are explained by different hydrodynamic and wave conditions. The occurrence of storms will impact the shallow re- gions by increasing the resuspension of bottom material. Prevail- ing winds will, on the other hand, change the residual transport of SPM in the North Sea. The more protected Southern Bight exhibits relatively stronger influences of advection, whereas in the central North Sea and the German Bight resuspension is more pronounced. This patterns result in an alternation of relatively high SPM con- centration in the Southern Bight and in the rest of the southern North Sea during certain weather conditions. Limitations in satel- lite images have been assigned to stratification effects due to the occurrence of highly concentrated mud suspensions during certain ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 2 7732132; fax: +32 2 7706972. E-mail address: m.fettweis@mumm.ac.be (M. Fettweis). 2211-1220/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.mio.2012.11.001