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Sea Rangers have periodically and systematically sampled chlorophyll across 13 different sampling areas in the North Sea. Samples are taken to match with satellite data tracking chlorophyll concentrations from space. During the assignment, the Sea Ranger Service vessel SV Fantastiko is tasked with positioning itself in one of the sampling areas. Within a 20 minute time window of one the ESA Sentinel 3 satellites passing over, under no cloud conditions, take a water sample.
The collected seawater is filtered and then conserved onboard in a special laboratory freezer, which stores the chlorophyll at -80°C. Samples are subsequently transported in a container with dry ice to a government-run laboratory for further analysis. The chlorophyll assignments were carried out over 2020-2022 under contract for the Dutch government agency Rijkswaterstaat.
The Sea Ranger Service vessel SV Fantastiko is equipped for different types of offshore sampling, processing and conserved storage onboard.