The study of water clarity is essential to understand variability in biological production, particularly in coastal seas. The spatial and temporal variability of non-algal suspended particulate matter (SPM) in surface waters of the English Channel was investigated and related to local forcing by means of a large satellite dataset covering the study area with a spatial resolution of 1.2 km and a daily temporal resolution. This analysed dataset is a time series of non-algal SPM images derived from MODIS and MERIS remote-sensing reflectance by application of an IFREMER semi-analytical algorithm over the period [2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008][2009]. In a first step, the variability of time series of MODIS images was analysed through temporal autocorrelation functions. Then, non-algal SPM concentrations were assessed in terms of site-specific explanatory variables such as tides, wind-generated surface-gravity wave amplitudes and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), based on three statistical models with fitting parameters calibrated on a dataset of merged MERIS/MODIS images gathered from 2007 to 2009 over the whole English Channel. Correlogram analysis and the first model highlight the local patterns of the influence of the tide, especially the neap-spring cycle, on non-algal surface SPM. Its effect is particularly strong in the central and eastern English Channel and in the western coastal areas. The second model shows that waves prevail as driver at the entrance of the English Channel. The most sophisticated of the three statistical models, although involving only three explanatory variables-the tide, waves and Chl-a-is able to estimate non-algal surface SPM with a coefficient of determination reaching 70% at many locations.

International audienceMonopile foundations of offshore wind turbines modify the hydrodynamics and sediment transport at local and regional scales. The aim of this work is to assess these modifications and to parameterize them in a regional model. In the present study, this is achieved through a regional circulation model, coupled with a sediment transport module, using two approaches. One approach is to explicitly model the monopiles in the mesh as dry cells, and the other is to parameterize them by adding a drag force term to the momentum and turbulence equations. Idealised cases are run using hydrodynamical conditions and sediment grain sizes typical from the area located off Courseulles-sur-Mer (Normandy, France), where an offshore windfarm is under planning, to assess the capacity of the model to reproduce the effect of the monopile on the environment. Then, the model is applied to a real configuration on an area including the future offshore windfarm of Courseulles-sur-Mer. Four monopiles are represented in the model using both approaches, and modifications of the hydrodynamics and sediment transport are assessed over a tidal cycle. In relation Responsible Editor: Bruno Castelle Aurélie Rivier to local hydrodynamic effects, it is observed that currents increase at the side of the monopile and decrease in front of and downstream of the monopile. In relation to sediment transport effect, the results show that resuspension and erosion occur around the monopile in locations where the current speed increases due to the monopile presence, and sediments deposit downstream where the bed shear stress is lower. During the tidal cycle, wakes downstream of the monopile reach the following monopile and modify the velocity magnitude and suspended sediment concentration patterns around the second monopile

The present study investigates the performances of the three-dimensional multicomponent hydro-sedimentary model ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) to predict near-surface suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) in the English Channel (western Europe). Predictions are assessed against satellite-retrieved observations from raw MODIS and MERIS images for the year 2008 characterized by the highest availability of cloud-free data. Focus is put on improvements obtained with: (1) SSC inputs at the open boundaries; and (2) simple parameterizations of the settling velocity and the critical shear stress. Sensitivity studies confirm the importance of the advection of fine-grained suspended sediments in the central waters of the English Channel exhibiting benefits of refined SSC estimations along the sea boundaries. Improvements obtained with modified formulations of the settling velocity and the critical shear stress finally suggest possible seasonal influences of biological activity and thermal stratification on near-surface SSC.