Satellite data may help further clarify Oder River disaster

By Dilara Hamit

ANKARA (AA) - Experts detected unusually high concentrations of algae Monday in the Oder River in western Poland in the wake of an ecological disaster there that killed tons of fish and animals.

Brockmann Consult GmbH, a Hamburg-based company that develops software and services for the exploitation of environmental data, has processed satellite data at the river calculating chlorophyll concentrations, which serve as indicators of algal blooms.

In a statement, it said the satellite carries an optical sensor that can be used to determine water color and infer which color-giving substances are in the water.

"In this initial analysis, three selected time periods were examined. The graph shows three profiles of chlorophyll concentrations in the Oder River in late July, early August and mid-August. The yellowish colors indicate the particularly high chlorophyll concentrations," the statement said.

It further said that towards the end of July, the concentration of the entire river course was around a medium level, with a minor increase in the southern section of the river around the town of Opode.

It emphasized that a spike in chlorophyll concentration was observed near Wroclaw, a city on the river, and that 10-12 days later, the algal bloom had traveled downstream like a wave and expanded over a greater section of the river in early August.

"The new results will help to better understand the ongoing toxic prymnesium algal bloom and to narrow down its origin in space and time. For this purpose, aquatic ecological monitoring data and water samples are combined with satellite data, which are also available from the time of the onset of the environmental disaster," the statement said.

It is still unknown what tainted Oder, Poland's second-largest river, despite multiple tests on fish and water samples performed by Polish and foreign laboratories.