Chlorophyll-a and Salinity Concentrations Derived from Satellite Images for the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence (1998-2025)

"New version" This dataset presents the result of a model developed to retrieve chlorophyll-a (chla) and salinity concentrations from various satellites in the St. Lawrence Estuary and Gulf. This version replaces the previous ones, with estimates derived from a retuning of the model based on additional in situ and satellite-derived data. The input data is now exclusively from the European Space Agency's Ocean Color Climate Change Initiative (CCI) program.

The ocean color, seen from space, makes it possible to estimate the chlorophyll content in water. This pigment is an index of the biomass of microscopic algae. Compared to the Atlantic Ocean, the waters of the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence are rather isolated and are highly mixed with fresh water from numerous rivers.

For further information, please consult the following papers:

• Laliberté, J., & Larouche, P. (2023). Chlorophyll-a concentration climatology, phenology, and trends in the optically complex waters of the St. Lawrence Estuary and Gulf. Journal of Marine Systems, 238, 103830.

• Laliberté, J., Guénard, G., Dumas, J., Galbraith, P. S., Hall, S., Trossman, D., & Vissault, S. (2025). Evaluation of satellite-based sea surface salinity derived from two distinct spectral domains over the coastal waters of the St. Lawrence Estuary and Gulf. Frontiers in Marine Science, 12, 1672298.

This dataset is produced as part of the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program under Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Oceans Protection Plan.