| Summary: | The project ASIMUTH (http://www.asimuth.eu) aims to develop forecasting capabilities to warn of impending harmful algal blooms (HABs) along the European Atlantic coast. ASIMUTH is a HAB warning service for the aquaculture industry developed as a demonstration of a Copernicus marine downstream service coupled to the MyOcean service. The north-western Iberian coast (Galician rias and shelf) is frequently affected by HABs associated with dinoflagellates, which induce closures of harvesting areas in a region where aquaculture has a strong socioeconomic impact. In the framework of ASIMUTH, IEO is developing products to characterize the oceanographic conditions during periods of HABs. A forecast system is also being developed as a downstream service based on hydrodynamic, biochemical and Lagrangian particle-tracking model results combined with in-situ data and satellite imagery. In this contribution, we will present the ASIMUTH forecast system and show its skill in predicting transport of HABs and in assessing the area affected by HABs with the experience gained in 2013 and 2014. We will also report on the Galician HAB pilot bulletins that were developed as a product of the ASIMUTH project and are aimed at providing forecasts of HAB events that might induce closures of harvesting areas or, when the areas are already closed, at giving some information on the oceanographic conditions that could favour or hamper the opening of the areas.
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