A Comparative Study for Red Tide Detection Methods Using GOCI and MODIS

This study detected red tide areas using the existing Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) and Geostationary Ocean Color Imager(GOCI), and then compared the results between results of two sensors. The coasts of Jeollanam-do in the South Sea of Korea were set as the study area based on the red tide data which occurred on Aug. 26th, 2012. This study compared the results of sensors to detect red tides by using a satellite. In the results of analyzing MODIS by limiting it as chlorophyll concentration and the sea surface temperature which is considered to have red tides by the existing researches, it was possible to delete considerable amount of errors compared to the case of detecting red tides by using only chlorophyll while still there were differences from the range of red tides actually observed. In the results of GOCI by using empirical algorithm for detecting red tides, currently used by Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology(KIOST), it was possible to obtain more detailed results than MODIS. However, there was an area misjudged as red tides due to the influence of clouds. Also both MODIS and GOCI extracted red tides were not actually occurring, which might be because they were not able to perfectly distinguish red tides from turbid water in coastal areas with high turbidity.