Beach Litter count data collected across 10 beaches of the Belgian coast in 2023 and 2024 by volunteers of the citizen science association Proper Strand Lopers. One of the key indicators of abundance, composition and trends of litter in the marine environment is the amount on beaches. OSPAR monitors litter on 100m stretches at over 70 beaches in the North-East Atlantic following common monitoring guidelines. The monitoring records litter in 112 predefined litter items in 11 types: Plastic / polystyrene, Metal, Paper and cardboard, Wood, Sanitary waste, Cloth, Rubber, Glass, Pottery/ceramics, Medical waste and Faeces.

UNDER EMBARGO - This dataset is part of BE/2023 sampling campagn in SW Greenland fjords (Igaliku and Tunulliarfik). The dataset reports the final concentrations (μg L⁻¹) of each detected photosynthetic pigment, used to infer phytoplankton functional groups and compare community composition across fjords with differing glacial influence and between seasons (spring–summer). For pigment analysis, seawater volumes ranging from 700 mL to 1 L were filtered onto 25-mm diameter Whatman GF/F filters and immediately stored at -80°C until further analysis. Pigments were extracted using 90% acetone and analysed by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) following the method of Van Heukelem and Thomas (2001). Calibration was performed using pigment standards from DHI Water and Environment (Hørsholm, Denmark). In the dataset is indicated the final consentration (μg/L) of each detected photosyntetic pigment.

An hillshade is a homogeneous and regular points grid, indicating the grey tone deriving from their orientation relative to the chosen fictitious light source. The Hillshade DTM 1m is a representation of the hillshading of the DTM 1m.

An hillshade is a homogeneous and regular points grid, indicating the grey tone deriving from their orientation relative to the chosen fictitious light source. The Hillshade DSM 1m is a representation of the hillshading of the DSM 1m.

A climate normal is an average over a 30-years period. The period 1981-2010 is the current reference period recommended by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Recent climate normals are available for any locations in Belgium and several parameters including air temperature, precipitations and solar radiation. Climate normals for the reference period 1981-2010 are available for air temperature, precipitation and derived parameters (e.g., annual number of summer days, annual number of precipitation days, etc.). For solar radiation, the reference period had to be adjusted to 1984-2013 because of data availability. These climate normals are available as maps and as table for each Belgian municipality.

Hail products are derived from the observed vertical profiles of radar reflectivity and the NWP vertical profiles of temperature. Three types of products are generated. poh : probability of hail of any size (larger than 0.5 cm diameter)expressed in %. posh : probability of severe hail(larger than 2cm)expressed in %. mesh : maximum expected size of hailexpressed in mm of hailstone diameter. All products are generated every 5 minutes. This product is not publically available yet.

Geodetic markers of which the 3D coordinates are precisely known in common Belgian reference systems.

Bird density profiles are derived from weather radar volume data in real time, by the vol2bird algorithm as described in Dokter et al. (2011, 2019). The vol2bird algorithm exploits the radar reflectivity characteristics of different scatterers in the atmosphere, in order to distinguish biological from non-biological radar echoes. Once biological scatterers are isolated in the volume files, the reflectivity of these scatterers is converted in an estimate of the bird density per vertical layer of 200m, using a mean cross section of 11 cm2. The vbird profiles are provided for the following radars, with the radar owner in parentheses: Jabbeke (RMI), Wideumont (RMI), Helchteren (VMM), Zaventem (Skeyes), Herwijnen (KNMI), Den Helder (KNMI), Neuheilenbach (DWD), Essen (DWD), Abbeville (Météo-France) and Avesnois (Météo-France). References: - Dokter A.M., Liechti F., Stark H., Delobbe L., Tabary P., Holleman I., Bird migration flight altitudes studied by a network of operational weather radars, J. R. Soc. Interface, 8, 30–43, 2011, DOI 10.1098/rsif.2010.0116 - Dokter A.M., Desmet P., Spaaks J.H., van Hoey S., Veen L., Verlinden L., Nilsson C., Haase G., Leijnse H., Farnsworth A., Bouten W., Shamoun-Baranes J., bioRad: biological analysis and visualization of weather radar data, Ecography, 42, 852-860, 2019, DOI 10.1111/ecog.04028

This dataset contains the spatial metadata of the collection of historical aerial photographs (1946–2007) of the National Geographic Institute (NGI). The aerial photographs themselves are not part of the dataset. The collection comprises more than 72,000 aerial photographs. The images are predominantly panchromatic (black and white). From the late 1970s onwards, colour images were also acquired, and from late 2004 onwards all images were acquired in colour. The analogue aerial photographs in the collection were scanned at high resolution. This specific dataset comprises three layers: the centre points (centroids) of the individual aerial photographs, the footprints (the outlines of the area on the ground covered by each photograph) and the flight paths of the aircraft used during image acquisition. For each aerial photograph, all known metadata are included in the attribute table, such as the acquisition date, the flight and the strip, the dimensions, the scale, the ground resolution, the radiometry (black and white or colour), the coordinates of the centre point and the camera, lens and film used. These data make it possible to look up which historical aerial photographs are available for a given location and period, and what the characteristics of each photograph are. The data can be consulted via the corresponding web service (WFS). The aerial photographs can be ordered in high resolution via https://shop.ngi.be/nl/luchtfotos/.

UNDER EMBARGO - This dataset is part of BE/2023 sampling campagn in SW Greenland fjords (Igaliku and Tunulliarfik). Pelagic community was analysed using Imaging Flow Cytometry (iFCM) with an ImageStream®X Mk II. Cells were grouped into functional size classes—pico-, nano- and microplankton—according to measured cell length. Cells lacking chlorophyll autofluorescence were classified as heterotrophic or chemotrophic organisms, including heterotrophic picoplankton/bacteria (HP; ≤2 µm) and heterotrophic nanoplankton (HN; 2–20 µm). No larger heterotrophs (>20 µm) were visually detected. Autofluorescent cells were considered phototrophic, although this fraction may also include mixotrophic taxa, and comprised picophytoplankton (AP; ≤2 µm), nanophytoplankton (AN; 2–20 µm), and microphytoplankton (AMicro; 20–100 µm). To estimate the biovolume of each plankton class, the two-dimensional cell surface area measured by the IDEAS® imaging software was multiplied by the mean cell width, assuming that cell width approximates the third spatial dimension. Carbon biomass was subsequently derived from biovolume using established carbon–volume relationships. For the HP fraction, carbon content was estimated using the bacterial conversion proposed by Romanova and Sazhin (2010), where volume is expressed in µm³. Although the HP fraction may also include heterotrophic picoeukaryotes, and its biomass may therefore be partly underestimated, this conversion was applied because the fraction was assumed to be numerically dominated by bacteria. For the other protist groups, carbon biomass was derived following Menden-Deuer and Lessard (2000). Carbon values were converted from pg C cell⁻¹ to carbon biomass (µg C L⁻¹) based on cell abundance.