Applicability of Coloured Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) induced by Geostationary Ocean Colour Imager (GOCI) to the mapping of Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) in Korean coastal waters

Abstract

Satellite remote sensing has widely been employed to observe many ocean characteristics these days, such as sea surface temperature, chlorophyll concentration, suspended sediment concentration, etc. Sea surface salinity can be also derived from satellite remote sensing, although little has been successful particularly in the coastal waters. Some microwave sensors like Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and Aquarius are capable of generating sea surface salinity distribution, but they cannot be used in coastal area due to their poor spatial and temporal resolution. Here, we tested the applicability of CDOM distribution observed from the Geostationary Ocean Colour Imager (GOCI) to mapping SSS in the Korean coastal waters. It is well-known that CDOM absorption property has a strong correlation with SSS in the area that influenced by freshwater inflow. Empirical relationships between CDOM absorption and SSS are derived from in-situ measurement collected at three areas in the Yellow Sea, Gyeonggi-bay, East China Sea and Mokpo coastal waters. In-situ dataset was separated into 70 and 30 percent for algorithm development and validation, respectively. Gyeonggi-bay showed the highest correlation among three areas in terms of the comparison with the validation dataset, which shows that it is possible to estimate SSS from CDOM absorption at the estuarine environment. Further studies would be needed to improve the algorithm anfrom satellite remote sensing, although little has been successful particularly in the coastal waters. Some microwave sensors like Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and Aquarius are capable of generating sea surface salinity distribution, but they cannot be used in coastal area due to their poor spatial and temporal resolution. Here, we tested the applicability of CDOM distribution observed from the Geostationary Ocean Colour Imager (GOCI) to mapping SSS in the Korean coastal waters. It is well-known that CDOM absorption property has a strong correlation with SSS in the area that influenced by freshwater inflow. Empirical relationships between CDOM absorption and SSS are derived from in-situ measurement collected at three areas in the Yellow Sea, Gyeonggi-bay, East China Sea and Mokpo coastal waters. In-situ dataset was separated into 70 and 30 percent for algorithm development and validation, respectively. Gyeonggi-bay showed the highest correlation among three areas in terms of the comparison with the validation dataset, which shows that it is possible to estimate SSS from CDOM absorption at the estuarine environment. Further studies would be needed to improve the algorithm an