The Congo River plume is unique in that the low salinity river water form a very shallow layer that extend well beyond the river mouth. The end result is the creation of a very strong current shear at the interface that can be problematic for operations in the area such as the loading of tankers. A good understanding of the spread of the plume and its variability allows a better planning of all operations and can be included in the determination of suitable metocean windows. Figure 1: Congo plume CDOM signature |
CLS acquires daily EO Ocean color images which contain chlorophyll, total suspended matter and concentration of dissolved organic matter. These data are then processed using an algorithm to determine a threshold value differentiating plume waters and open ocean waters, thus resulting in daily maps of the plume extent. These maps can be then be averaged over a month to get monthly maps of the plume extent. This can be done for successive years and hence create a monthly climatology of the plume extent, which can be used in ocean models. |