Applications of surface velocity current derived from Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI)

Abstract

We study turbulent oceanic flows in the context of ocean color. Observations of the submesoscale processes with scales of O(1km) and O(1day) has been difficult from a satellite because spatial and temporal sampling frequencies of satellite data do not typically meet the range of submesoscale oceanic processes. The advent of geostationary ocean color imager (GOCI) that has high spatiotemporal resolutions (hourly observation with 500-m ground sampling distance) enables us to observe scalar and velocity fields in the submesoscale range near the Korean Peninsula. This motivates us to use the GOCI to study how submesoscale processes interact with pseudo-passive tracers such as phytoplankton, suspended sediment, and floating algae (e.g. Sargassum). The surface current in the East/Japan sea is derived from the spatial and temporal changes in chlorophyll-a concentration using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method. The procedures that generate surface velocity field and some applications that utilize the velocity field for the study of submesoscale turbulence over the oceanic surface are introduced.