Monitoring of Water Quality in Lake and Coastal Regions Using Simulated Envisat Meris Data

The spatial and temporal variation of water quality in Finnish lakes and coastal regions is high compared with typical conditions in open sea areas or in large lakes. Both the lake regions and the coastal archipelago consist of small basins or sub-basins isolated from each other by islands and peninsulas. Moreover, Finnish lakes as well as the Northern Baltic sea annually freezes which has a high influence on the seasonal behavior of water quality characteristics. Additionally, the Baltic Sea is a shallow enclosed sea with strong external nutrient loading sources which causes large regional impacts on water quality, e.g. in the Gulf of Finland [1].