Ocean Color Monitoring of Coastal Environments in the Asian Waters

Satellite remote sensing technology for ocean observation has evolved considerably in these last twenty years. Ocean color is one of the most important parameters of ocean satellite measurements. This paper describes a remote sensing of ocean color data project - Asian I-Lac Project; it also introduces several case studies using satellite images in the Asian waters. The Asian waters are related to about 30 Asian countries, representing about 60% of the world population. The project aims at generating long-term time series images (planned for 10 years from 1996 to 2006) by combining several ocean color satellite data, i.e., ADEOS-I OCTS and SeaWiFS, and some other sensors. Some typical parameters that could be measured include Chlorophyll- a (Chl-a), Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM), and Suspended Material (SSM). Reprocessed OCTS images display spatial variation of Chl-a, CDOM, and SSM in the Asian waters; a short term variability of phytoplankton blooms was observed in the Gulf of Oman in November 1996 by analyzing OCTS and NOAA sea surface temperature (SST)； Chl-a concentrations derived from OCTS and SeaWiFS have also been evaluated in coastal areas of the Taiwan Strait, the Gulf of Thailand, the northeast Arabian Sea, and the Japan Sea. The data system provides scientists with capability of testing or developing ocean color algorithms, and transferring images for their research. We have also analyzed availability of OCTS images. The results demonstrate the potential of long-term time series of satellite ocean color data for research in marine biology, and ocean studies. The case studies show multiple applications of satellite images on monitoring of coastal environments in the Asian Waters.