EuroGOOS Logo
 
EU-Project "FerryBox"

Executive Summary of the EU-Project "FerryBox"

Scientific achievements:

Using the results of the measurements, attempts were made to incorporate the data into models and testing their improvement after data-assimilation. Other models such as those calculating water transports, were used to compare data from single points (buoys) with the data from the ferry transect. Based on these model exercises direct comparisons between both types of observations became possible. Special emphasis was also put onto comparisons between FerryBox measurements and remote sensing observations from MERIS (on board the European satellite ENVISAT). Due to good weather conditions during 2005 several comparisons could be made between chlorophyll content in surface seawater and chlorophyll observed by satellite, which show the spatial extent of bloom phenomena, which otherwise can not be estimated from the ferry transects alone. The possibility to use FerryBox data as ground truth for satellite observations was taken into consideration by several partners and will deliver a large amount of information on the potential linkages between the two types of observational techniques.

Socio-economic relevance and policy implications:

During the last phase of the project the discussion on and the analysis of the costs-benefits of FerryBox systems started. This report contains costs elements (investments in systems, servicing, data retrieval, and reliability of systems) as well as benefits in terms of improved observations both temporal and spatial, for scientific and monitoring purposes. Also relations to international agreements (OSPAR, ICES) and EU Directives will be considered.

Conclusions

The final steps and conclusions of the project were discussed during a workshop in Helsinki in October 2005. This workshop organised by our local partner at the Finnish Institute for Marine Research has concluded that we have several outstanding results from our project regarding different aspects:

We have reached the goals set for our scientific studies regarding eutrophication, sediment and water transport, on the usefulness of FerryBox data for model exercises and evaluations, including data assimilation procedures; we could demonstrate the ability to understand up-welling effects in the Finnish Gulf based on FerryBox data, we have derived several examples of a close integration of remote sensed data in the Baltic and Skagerrak, Bay of Biscay and the North Sea regarding the distribution of chlorophyll in surface layers as sampled by the FerryBox.

Usefulness of an ADCP on a Dutch ferry could be accomplished in terms of estimates of changing bottom topography and sediment transport through a tidal inlet.
Water transport calculations could be made for parts of the North Sea, where additionally comparisons were made between observations from a fixed buoy and our Ferry line transect several miles away. Other activities were meant to improve the calibration procedures of the different sensors in the respective FerryBox systems. This chapter could not be entirely completed because it proved to be more complicate as previously thought.