Smoke on the Water

Context

Large wildfires release vast amounts of smoke and atmospheric pollutants that can travel far beyond their source regions. While the effects of such events on air quality are well studied, their potential implications for marine ecosystems remain less visible and are rarely communicated across disciplinary boundaries.

At the same time, a growing body of open environmental data — including atmospheric observations and marine habitat datasets — enables new forms of integrative analysis. Bringing these data sources together offers an opportunity to explore plausible links between terrestrial wildfire events and marine systems, while also highlighting the complexity and uncertainty inherent in such connections.

Project artifact

This short film was created as the final artifact for the Open Sea Lab 4.0 Hackathon. It introduces the core idea of Smoke on the Water through a calm visual narrative, combining wildfire smoke plume data with marine imagery and animated data traces.

Project focus

Smoke on the Water explores how atmospheric wildfire smoke data and marine habitat information can be jointly analyzed and visualized to investigate potential relationships between large-scale fire events and sensitive marine ecosystems.

The project focuses on:

• integrating heterogeneous atmospheric and marine datasets
• exploring spatial and temporal overlap between wildfire smoke plumes and marine habitats
• developing visual narratives that make complex environmental data accessible without oversimplifying uncertainty

Rather than aiming to establish causal claims, the project is framed as an exploratory case study that combines data integration, environmental analysis, and science communication.

Collaboration

The project was developed as a collaborative effort bringing together complementary expertise:

• Jenny Ioannou — founder of Humanitas; concept development, science communication, and narrative framing
• Eleana Touloupaki — marine science advisor; domain expertise on marine ecosystems and environmental interpretation
• Jan Meischner — data integration, methodological structuring, and analytical workflow development

The collaboration bridged environmental science, data analysis, and public-facing communication.

My role

I was responsible for integrating atmospheric and marine datasets, structuring the analytical workflow, and supporting the development of transparent and reproducible visualizations.

Outcomes and current status

The project was initially developed during the Open Sea Lab 4.0 Hackathon, where it received first prize. It was subsequently presented at the European Maritime Day in Cork, enabling exchange with a broader European marine research and policy audience.

Following this initial phase, the work has been consolidated conceptually and positioned for integration into a larger project context. Smoke on the Water currently forms part of the BLUEFUSE consortium proposal, led by the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, submitted to the SBEP funding program.

Depending on the outcome of the funding decision, the project will either continue as part of the BLUEFUSE framework or be further developed through alternative funding pathways. In either case, the initial project serves as a foundation for ongoing work on integrative analysis and communication of cross-domain environmental data.