Pilot 5.3 | Dive - Diver Information on Visibility in Europe

Pilot 5.3 | Dive - Diver Information on Visibility in Europe

SCUBA Diving is a popular sports activity as well as a crucial commercial service for many coastal economic areas. There are approximately 3.2 million active divers in Europe, based on data provided by Recreational Scuba Training Council (RSTC) [http://www.rstc-eu.com/Portals/2/Facts_Figures_2016_screen.pdf].

Visibility in the water is a safety factor in both recreational and commercial diving as well as a large factor in the enjoyment of recreational diving. Visibility can be affected by many factors or variables which can be measured from space. To enable the use of earth observation data in these user focused downstream services we will create a location based middleware web service that provides near real time (NRT) visibility information for a specific location based on EO data.

/ Objectives
  • To provide a NRT visibility score for specific dive locations
  • To populate and enhance a coastal gazetteer of dive locations
  • To increase awareness of the benefits of EO data to a wider community
/ Partners

PML

/ Key Users

Cousteau Divers and Plymouth Dive Center. Other dive groups might be included.

/ Key Datasets

(W) NRT 1 km surface Chlorophyll a concentrations; (W) NRT Mixed Layer Depth; (W) NRT Kd 490 - diffuse attenuation coefficient; (W) NRT Suspended Particulate Matter; (W) NRT Significant Wave Height; (W) NRT VMDR - sea surface wave from direction ; (W) NRT Temperature.

/ ID Card
Expected outcome of the pilot

The final product will be a mobile phone application that will allow divers to easily check the expected visibility of a dive site. 

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