SATELLITE-MEASURED TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF TOKACHI RIVER PLUME

Variations in the extent and dispersal of river plume are important in the study of coastal environment. The objectives of this study are to examine relationship between satellite detected plume area and river discharge and to clarify the temporal and spatial dynamic of plume from Tokachi River, Hokaido, Japan. We used 1.1 km spatial resolution of SeaWiFS normalized water-leaving radiance (nLw) images from 1998 to 2002. Supervised maximum likelihood classification was implemented to define classes of surface water optical properties. Satellite observed plume area was correlated to the amount of river discharge from April to October. First mode (44% of variance) of EOF analysis shows the turbid plume distribution resulting from re-suspension by strong wind mixing along the coast during winter. This mode also shows plume distribution along-shelf direction in spring and late summer. Second mode (17% of variance) shows spring pattern across-shelf direction due to strong discharge of snow melting water.