"Observing lake water quality is the first step in safeguarding their sustainable use for future generations. Every improvement in the science or the engineering behind our global observation capability, whether through advanced computing, using new sensors or by enabling citizens, brings us one step closer to realising that goal."
Stefan is a phytoplankton ecologist using bio-optics to study biogenous matter in coastal and inland waters. His scientific contributions include remote sensing algorithm development, in situ sensor development and automation (mainly reflectance and fluorescence systems), citizen science solutions and bio-optical modelling based on laboratory experiments and field campaigns.
Having joined PML in 2014, Stefan developed a growing portfolio of inland water quality remote sensing projects, participating in NERC GloboLakes, Copernicus INFORM, FP7 EartH2Observe, BONUS FerryScope, H2020-TAPAS and H2020-EOMORES. Stefan coordinates the €5M H2020-MONOCLE project and is science co-lead of the ESA Climate Change Initiative project on Lakes.
Stefan graduated for his MSc in Biology (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics) at the University of Amsterdam in 2002 and obtained his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam when he completed his thesis (‘Blue-Green Catastrophe: remote sensing of mass viral lysis of cyanobacteria’) at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, in 2006. He was a post-doc at the Laboratoire d’Oceanography (Villefranche-sur-Mer) in 2007 and held postdoctoral research grants (Marie Curie IEF and Academy of Finland) on phytoplankton primary production at the Finnish Marine Institute and the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). Before joining PML in 2014 he acted as PI on FP7-PROTOOL and FP7-WaterS, AlgaLume, and as Co-I in FP7-CoBiOS, FP7-DEVOTES, FP7-Jerico and ESA-BalMon as senior scientist at SYKE. Stefan is adjunct professor in Aquatic Sciences at the University of Helsinki (since 2014) and honorary Professor at the University of Stirling department of Natural Sciences (since 2020).
- Copernicus Land Monitoring Service - Lake water quality
- Multiscale Observation Networks for Optical monitoring of Coastal waters, Lakes and Estuaries (MONOCLE)
- Lakes Climate Change Initiative
- Water-ForCE
- ProBleu
- EOCIS
- Carrea, L., Crétaux, J.-F., Liu, X., Wu, Y., Calmettes, B., Duguay, C.R., Merchant, C.J., Selmes, N., Simis, S.G.H. et al. 2023. Satellite-derived multivariate world-wide lake physical variable timeseries for climate studies. Scientific Data, 10(1), 30.
- Courtecuisse, E., Marchetti, E., Oxborough, K., Hunter, P.D., Spyrakos, E., Tilstone, G.H., & Simis, S.G.H. 2023. Optimising multispectral active fluorescence to distinguish the photosynthetic variability of cyanobacteria and algae. Sensors, 23(1), 461.
- Jordan, T.M., Simis, S.G.H., Selmes, N., Sent, G., Ienna, F., & Martinez-Vicente, V. 2023. Spatial structure of in situ reflectance in coastal and inland waters: implications for satellite validation. Frontiers in Remote Sensing, 4.
- Liu, X., Warren, M., Selmes, N., & Simis, S.G.H. 2024. Quantifying decadal stability of lake reflectance and chlorophyll-a from medium-resolution ocean color sensors. Remote Sensing of Environment, 306, 114120.
- Papathanasopoulou, E., Simis, S., Alikas, K., Ansper, A., Anttila, S., Attila, J. et al. 2019. Satellite-assisted monitoring of water quality to support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive Zenodo(V1.1).
- Simis, S.G.H., Hunter, P.D., Matthews, M.W., Spyrakos, E., Tyler, A., & Vaičiūté, D. 2022. Improved hyperspectral inversion of aquatic reflectance under non-uniform vertical mixing. Optics Express, 30(6), 9655-9673.
- Warren, M.A., Simis, S.G.H., & Selmes, N. 2021. Complementary water quality observations from high and medium resolution Sentinel sensors by aligning chlorophyll-a and turbidity algorithms. Remote Sensing of Environment, 265, 112651.
Recent publications
- Liu, X; Warren, M; Selmes, N; Simis, SGH; 2024. Quantifying decadal stability of lake reflectance and chlorophyll-a from medium-resolution ocean color sensors. Remote Sensing of Environment.
- Jordan, TM; Simis, SGH; Selmes, N; Sent, G; Ienna, F; Martinez-Vicente, V; 2023. Spatial structure of in situ reflectance in coastal and inland waters: implications for satellite validation. Frontiers in Remote Sensing.
- De Keukelaere, L; Moelans, R; Knaeps, E; Sterckx, S; Reusen, I; De Munck, D; Simis, SGH; Constantinescu, AM; Scrieciu, A; Katsouras, G; Mertens, W; Hunter, PD; Spyrakos, E; Tyler, A; 2023. Airborne Drones for Water Quality Mapping in Inland, Transitional and Coastal Waters—MapEO Water Data Processing and Validation. Remote Sensing.
- Lehmann, MK; Gurlin, D; Pahlevan, N; Alikas, K; Anstee, J; Balasubramanian, SV; Barbosa, CCF; Binding, CE; Bracher, A; Bresciani, M; Burtner, A; Cao, Z; Dekker, AG; Di Vittorio, C; Drayson, N; Errera, RM; Fernandez, V; Ficek, D; Fichot, CG; Gege, P; Giardino, C; Gitelson, AA; Greb, SR.; Henderson, H; Higa, H; Rahaghi, AI; Jamet, C; Jiang, D; Jordan, TM; Kangro, K; Kravitz, JA; Kristoffersen, AS; Kudela, R; Li, L; Ligi, M; Loisel, H; Lohrenz, S; Ma, R; Maciel, DA; Malthus, TJ; Matsushita, B; Matthews, MW; Minaudo, C; Mishra, DR; Mishra, S; Moore, T; Moses, WJ; Nguyễn, H; Novo, EMLM; Novoa, S; Odermatt, D; O’Donnell, DM; Olmanson, LG; Ondrusek, M; Oppelt, N; Ouillon, S; Pereira Filho, W; Plattner, S; Verdu, AR; Salem, SI; Schalles, JF; Simis, SGH; Siswanto, E; Smith, B; Somlai-Schweiger, I; Soppa, MA; Spyrakos, E; Tessin, E; Van der Woerd, HJ; Vander Woude, A; Vandermeulen, RA; Vantrepotte, V; Wernand, M; Werther, M; Young, K; Yue, L; 2023. GLORIA - A globally representative hyperspectral in situ dataset for optical sensing of water quality. Scientific Data.
- Jiang, D; Scholze, J; Liu, X; Simis, SGH; Stelzer, K; Müller, D; Hunter, P; Tyler, A; Spyrakos, E; 2023. A data-driven approach to flag land-affected signals in satellite derived water quality from small lakes. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation.