Case study: Lofoten and Vesterålen Islands

Swot L3 geostrophic currents and Chlorophyll-a patterns in the Lofoten region (credit NERSC)

The sea around Lofoten and Vesterålen, in northern Norway is a complex area. The Norwegian continental slope is steepest there, and the Norwegian continental shelf is narrowest, which leads to instabilities. It is also a region of high productivity which a number of fisheries, dependent on it.
Meanwhile, the mesoscale features are small, thus difficult to detect

These limitations will be addressed by using the surface ocean current product developed in the CoastDyn project (WP2400 & 3300) and the geostrophic currents from the SWOT mission. This should enable to characterize the properties of local mesoscale variability at the surface and in the ocean interior.

The impact of mesoscale variability on the ocean’s interior will be investigated using remote-sensed surface variables, namely SST from Sentinel-3 SLSTR and Chl-a from Sentinel-3 OLCI since upwelling and downwelling processes affect both SST and primary production by regulating the amount of Atlantic Water and nutrients which are advected between the ocean interior and the surface.