Sea Surface Visibility from Land (SSVL) provides an insight into sea surface location in terms of their visibility from land. A grid of observation points is generated extending 20km inshore and 35km offshore. These observation points at 500 m intervals, represent theoretical viewers who visually observe at a height of 2 m (i.e. height of a 2 m tall human).

The analysis assigns each offshore raster grid a value based on the number of observation points on land that are visible to each offshore grid cell. Grid cells with high values in the sea can be seen by many viewers on land and are therefore more ‘visible’ to viewers on land.

Analysis was carried out using ArcGIS 10.6, ArcGIS Spatial Analyst and the EU DEM v1.1.

Regional Seascapes Character Assessment (2020) project was carried out by Minogue and Associates on behalf of the Marine Institute.