Comparison of chlorophyll in the Red Sea derived from MODIS-Aqua and in vivo fluorescence

Brewin, Robert J W; Raitsos, Dionysios E.; Pradhan, Yaswant; Hoteit, Ibrahim

Type

Article

Authors

Brewin, Robert J W
Raitsos, Dionysios E.
Pradhan, Yaswant

Hoteit, Ibrahim

KAUST Department

Earth Fluid Modeling and Prediction Group
Earth Science and Engineering Program
Environmental Science and Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division

Date

2013-09

Permanent link to this record

http://hdl.handle.net/10754/562922

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Abstract

The Red Sea is a unique marine environment but relatively unexplored. The only available long-term biological dataset at large spatial and temporal scales is remotely-sensed chlorophyll observations (an index of phytoplankton biomass) derived using satellite measurements of ocean colour. Yet such observations have rarely been compared with in situ data in the Red Sea. In this paper, satellite chlorophyll estimates in the Red Sea from the MODIS instrument onboard the Aqua satellite are compared with three recent cruises of in vivo fluorometric chlorophyll measurements taken in October 2008, March 2010 and September to October 2011. The performance of the standard NASA chlorophyll algorithm, and that of a new band-difference algorithm, is found to be comparable with other oligotrophic regions in the global ocean, supporting the use of satellite ocean colour in the Red Sea. However, given the unique environmental conditions of the study area, regional algorithms are likely to fare better and this is demonstrated through a simple adjustment to the band-difference algorithm. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Citation

Brewin, R. J. W., Raitsos, D. E., Pradhan, Y., & Hoteit, I. (2013). Comparison of chlorophyll in the Red Sea derived from MODIS-Aqua and in vivo fluorescence. Remote Sensing of Environment, 136, 218–224. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2013.04.018

Sponsors

The authors would like to thank the captains and the crews of the RN "Aegaeo" of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), and of the RN "Oceanus" from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), who made the data collection possible. We thank in particular Leah Trafford and Amy Bower for their assistance on the cruise data used in this study. We thank Shubha Sathyendranath and Chuanmin Hu for suggestions on an earlier version of the manuscript and two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. This research was supported by the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UK National Centre for Earth Observation, and is a contribution to the Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA).