Synergy between Low Earth Orbit (LEO)—MODIS and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)—GOES Sensors for <i>Sargassum</i> Monitoring in the Atlantic Ocean
Since 2011, massive stranding of the brown algae <i>Sargassum</i> has regularly affected the coastal waters of the West Caribbean, Brazil, and West Africa, leading to heavy environmental and socio-economic impacts. Ocean color remote sensing observations as performed by sun-synchronous s...
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MDPI AG
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/8/1444 |
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| author | Audrey Minghelli Cristele Chevalier Jacques Descloitres Léo Berline Philippe Blanc Malik Chami |
| author_facet | Audrey Minghelli Cristele Chevalier Jacques Descloitres Léo Berline Philippe Blanc Malik Chami |
| author_sort | Audrey Minghelli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Since 2011, massive stranding of the brown algae <i>Sargassum</i> has regularly affected the coastal waters of the West Caribbean, Brazil, and West Africa, leading to heavy environmental and socio-economic impacts. Ocean color remote sensing observations as performed by sun-synchronous satellite sensors such as MODIS (NASA), MERIS (ESA), or OLCI (ESA/Copernicus) are used to provide quantitative assessments of <i>Sargassum</i> coverage through the calculation of indices as the Alternative Floating Algae Index (AFAI). Sun-synchronous sensors usually provide at best one daytime observation per day of a given oceanic area. However, such a daily temporal revisit rate is not fully satisfactory to monitor the dynamics of <i>Sargassum</i> aggregation due to their potentially significant drift over the course of the day as a result of oceanic currents and sea surface wind stress. In addition, the sun glint and the presence of clouds limit the use of low earth orbit observations, especially in tropical zones. The high frequency sampling provided by geostationary sensors can be a relevant alternative approach in synergy with ocean color sun-synchronous sensors to increase the temporal resolution of the observations, thus allowing efficient monitoring of <i>Sargassum</i> dynamics. In this study, data acquired by a geostationary satellite sensor located at 36,000 km from Earth, namely GOES-16 (NASA/NOAA), which was primarily designed for meteorology applications, are analyzed to investigate the <i>Sargassum</i> dynamics. The results demonstrate that a GOES-16 hourly composite product is appropriate to identify <i>Sargassum</i> aggregations using an index commonly used for vegetation monitoring, namely NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). It is also shown that GOES hourly observations can significantly improve the simulated drift obtained with a transport circulation model, which uses geostrophic current, wind, and waves. This study thus highlights the significant relevance of the effective synergy between sun-synchronous and geostationary satellite sensors for characterizing the <i>Sargassum</i> dynamics. Such a synergy could be summarized as follows: (i) A sun-synchronous sensor enables accurate <i>Sargassum</i> detection and quantitative estimates (e.g., fractional coverage) through AFAI Level-2 products while (ii) a geostationary sensor enables the determination of the displacement features of <i>Sargassum</i> aggregations (velocity, direction). |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:29:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3010d7fabd55424391338750a0b4324f |
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| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:29:43Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
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| spelling | doaj.art-3010d7fabd55424391338750a0b4324f2023-11-21T14:43:20ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922021-04-01138144410.3390/rs13081444Synergy between Low Earth Orbit (LEO)—MODIS and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)—GOES Sensors for <i>Sargassum</i> Monitoring in the Atlantic OceanAudrey Minghelli0Cristele Chevalier1Jacques Descloitres2Léo Berline3Philippe Blanc4Malik Chami5Laboratoire d’Informatique et Système (LIS), Université de Toulon, CNRS UMR 7020, F-83041 Toulon, FranceMediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, UM 110, F-13288 Marseille, FranceAERIS/ICARE Data and Services Center, University of Lille, CNRS, CNES, UMS 2877, F-59000 Lille, FranceMediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, UM 110, F-13288 Marseille, FranceObservation, Impacts, Energy (OIE), MINES ParisTech, PSL University, F-06904 Sophia Antipolis, FranceLaboratoire Atmosphères Milieux Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Sorbonne Université, CNRS-INSU, F-06304 Nice, FranceSince 2011, massive stranding of the brown algae <i>Sargassum</i> has regularly affected the coastal waters of the West Caribbean, Brazil, and West Africa, leading to heavy environmental and socio-economic impacts. Ocean color remote sensing observations as performed by sun-synchronous satellite sensors such as MODIS (NASA), MERIS (ESA), or OLCI (ESA/Copernicus) are used to provide quantitative assessments of <i>Sargassum</i> coverage through the calculation of indices as the Alternative Floating Algae Index (AFAI). Sun-synchronous sensors usually provide at best one daytime observation per day of a given oceanic area. However, such a daily temporal revisit rate is not fully satisfactory to monitor the dynamics of <i>Sargassum</i> aggregation due to their potentially significant drift over the course of the day as a result of oceanic currents and sea surface wind stress. In addition, the sun glint and the presence of clouds limit the use of low earth orbit observations, especially in tropical zones. The high frequency sampling provided by geostationary sensors can be a relevant alternative approach in synergy with ocean color sun-synchronous sensors to increase the temporal resolution of the observations, thus allowing efficient monitoring of <i>Sargassum</i> dynamics. In this study, data acquired by a geostationary satellite sensor located at 36,000 km from Earth, namely GOES-16 (NASA/NOAA), which was primarily designed for meteorology applications, are analyzed to investigate the <i>Sargassum</i> dynamics. The results demonstrate that a GOES-16 hourly composite product is appropriate to identify <i>Sargassum</i> aggregations using an index commonly used for vegetation monitoring, namely NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). It is also shown that GOES hourly observations can significantly improve the simulated drift obtained with a transport circulation model, which uses geostrophic current, wind, and waves. This study thus highlights the significant relevance of the effective synergy between sun-synchronous and geostationary satellite sensors for characterizing the <i>Sargassum</i> dynamics. Such a synergy could be summarized as follows: (i) A sun-synchronous sensor enables accurate <i>Sargassum</i> detection and quantitative estimates (e.g., fractional coverage) through AFAI Level-2 products while (ii) a geostationary sensor enables the determination of the displacement features of <i>Sargassum</i> aggregations (velocity, direction).https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/8/1444ocean color<i>sargassum</i>AFAI indexgeostationary remote sensingGOES |
| spellingShingle | Audrey Minghelli Cristele Chevalier Jacques Descloitres Léo Berline Philippe Blanc Malik Chami Synergy between Low Earth Orbit (LEO)—MODIS and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)—GOES Sensors for <i>Sargassum</i> Monitoring in the Atlantic Ocean Remote Sensing ocean color <i>sargassum</i> AFAI index geostationary remote sensing GOES |
| title | Synergy between Low Earth Orbit (LEO)—MODIS and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)—GOES Sensors for <i>Sargassum</i> Monitoring in the Atlantic Ocean |
| title_full | Synergy between Low Earth Orbit (LEO)—MODIS and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)—GOES Sensors for <i>Sargassum</i> Monitoring in the Atlantic Ocean |
| title_fullStr | Synergy between Low Earth Orbit (LEO)—MODIS and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)—GOES Sensors for <i>Sargassum</i> Monitoring in the Atlantic Ocean |
| title_full_unstemmed | Synergy between Low Earth Orbit (LEO)—MODIS and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)—GOES Sensors for <i>Sargassum</i> Monitoring in the Atlantic Ocean |
| title_short | Synergy between Low Earth Orbit (LEO)—MODIS and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)—GOES Sensors for <i>Sargassum</i> Monitoring in the Atlantic Ocean |
| title_sort | synergy between low earth orbit leo modis and geostationary earth orbit geo goes sensors for i sargassum i monitoring in the atlantic ocean |
| topic | ocean color <i>sargassum</i> AFAI index geostationary remote sensing GOES |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/8/1444 |
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