Xianqiang He

Atmospheric correction of satellite ocean color imagery using the ultraviolet wavelength for highly turbid waters

Instead of the conventionally atmospheric correction algorithms using the near-infrared and shortwave infrared wavelengths, an alternative practical atmospheric correction algorithm using the ultraviolet wavelength for turbid waters (named UV-AC) is proposed for satellite ocean color imagery in the paper. The principle of the algorithm is based on the fact that the water-leaving radiance at ultraviolet wavelengths can be neglected as compared with that at the visible light wavelengths or even near-infrared wavelengths in most cases of highly turbid waters due to the strong absorption by detritus and colored dissolved organic matter. The UV-AC algorithm uses the ultraviolet band to estimate the aerosol scattering radiance empirically, and it does not need any assumption of the waters optical properties. Validations by both of the simulated data and in situ data show that the algorithm is appropriate for the retrieval of the water-leaving radiance in turbid waters. The UV-AC algorithm can be used for all the current satellite ocean color sensors, and it is especially useful for those ocean color sensors lacking the shortwave infrared bands. Moreover, the algorithm can be used for any turbid waters with negligible water-leaving radiance at ultraviolet wavelength. Based on our work, we recommend the future satellite ocean color remote sensors setting the ultraviolet band to perform the atmospheric correction in turbid waters.

Summertime Changjiang River plume variation during 1998–2010

Using an improved satellite-derived salinity algorithm in the East China Sea (ECS), we presented and examined a general view on summertime Changjiang River plume variation during 1998–2010. Three types of plume shapes were identified: (1) the commonly known northeastward transportation, (2) a case in which most of the plume water crossed the Cheju Strait into the Tsushima-Korea Straits with only a small fraction staying on the shelf of the ECS, and (3) a rare case in which the plume front moved southeastward. Satellite time-series data suggested that, during the peak river discharge time in July with favorable southwest monsoon, the plume area was highly correlated with the river discharge of the same month. Interestingly, the plume area in August was also dominated by the discharge in July. In August, as the direct effect of freshwater discharge weakening, the plume area also became positively correlated with wind speed in the 45° and 60°direction, suggesting that the plume extension was more influenced by the southwesterly wind during periods of smaller discharge. Furthermore, a few special cases with unique plume extensions were found under extreme weather conditions. Finally, we found no significant long-term trend of plume area change over 1998–2010 in summertime and concluded that the interannual variation was probably regulated by natural variation rather than anthropogenic effects, such as construction of the Three Gorges Dam. This study will have implications for biogeochemical and modeling studies in large river plume areas.

A mechanistic semi‐analytical method for remotely sensing sea surface pCO2 in river‐dominated coastal oceans: A case study from the East China Sea

While satellite remote sensing has become a very useful tool contributing to assessments of sea surface partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) that subsequently allow quantification of air-sea CO2 flux, the application of empirical approaches in coastal oceans has proven challenging owing to the interaction of multiple controlling factors. We propose a “mechanistic semi-analytic algorithm” (MeSAA) to estimate sea surface pCO2 in river-dominated coastal oceans using satellite data. Observed pCO2 can be analytically expressed as the sum of individual components controlled by major factors such as thermodynamics (or temperature), mixing, and biology. With marine carbonate system calculations, temperature and mixing effects can be predicted using thermodynamic principles and by assuming conservative two end-member mixing of total dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity (e.g., the Changjiang River and Kuroshio water in the East China Sea, ECS). Next, an integral expression for pCO2 drawdown due to biological effects can be parameterized using the chlorophyll a concentration (chla). We demonstrate the validity and applicability of the algorithm in the ECS during summertime. Sensitivity analysis shows that errors in empirical coefficients and three input satellite parameters (salinity, SST, chla) have limited influence on the algorithm, and satellite-derived pCO2 is consistent with underway data, even though no in situ pCO2 data from the ECS shelves was used to train the algorithm. Our algorithm has more physical and biogeochemical mechanistic meaning than empirical methods, and should be applicable to other similar systems.

Areas of the global major river plumes

River plumes are the regions where the most intense river-sea-land interaction occurs, and they are characterized by complex material transport and biogeochemical processes. However, due to their highly dynamic nature, global river plume areas have not yet been determined for use in synthetic studies of global oceanography. Based on global climatological monthly averaged salinity data from the NOAA World Ocean Atlas 2009 (WOA09), and monthly averaged salinity contour maps of the East and South China Seas from the Chinese Marine Atlas, we extract the monthly plume areas of major global rivers using a geographic information system (GIS) technique. Only areas with salinities that are three salinity units lower than the average salinity in each ocean are counted. This conservative estimate shows that the minimum and maximum monthly values of the total plume area of the world’s 19 largest rivers are 1.72×106 km2 in May and 5.38×106 km2 in August. The annual mean area of these river plumes (3.72×106 km2) takes up approximately 14.2% of the total continental shelves areaworldwide (26.15×106 km2). This paper also presents river plume areas for different oceans and latitude zones, and analyzes seasonal variations of the plume areas and their relationships with river discharge. These statistics describing the major global river plume areas can now provide the basic data for the various flux calculations in the marginal seas, and therefore will be of useful for many oceanographic studies.

Satellite views of the episodic terrestrial material transport to the southern Okinawa Trough driven by typhoon

Using satellite-derived water transparency (alias Secchi depth) images, we found clear signals of terrestrial material transport to the southern Okinawa Trough triggered by the Typhoon Morakot in August 2009. Three sources were identified: one is from the eastern coast of Taiwan, another is from the western coast of Taiwan, and the other is from the coast of mainland China. Carried by northward flows, typhoon-triggered terrestrial materials from both sides of Taiwans coasts were transported to the region northeast of Taiwan. Moreover, the terrestrial material from the coast of mainland China could cross the Taiwan Strait and be further transported to the region northeast of Taiwan. These typhoon-induced terrestrial materials off northeastern Taiwan could then be transported to the southern Okinawa Trough along the western edge of the Kuroshio. In addition to the particulate terrestrial material transported, nutrients might also be transported to the Kuroshio main stream. A significant phytoplankton bloom was observed along the Kuroshio path for about 300 km off northeast of Taiwan. Our results indicate that episodic cyclone-driven terrestrial material transport could be another source of mud in the southern Okinawa Trough.

Spring carbonate chemistry dynamics of surface waters in the northern East China Sea: Water mixing, biological uptake of CO2, and chemical buffering capacity

We investigated sea surface total alkalinity (TAlk), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), dissolved oxygen (DO), and satellite-derived chlorophyll-a in the connection between the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea (ECS) during April to early May 2007. In spring, Changjiang dilution water (CDW), ECS offshore water, and together with Yellow Sea water (YSW) occupied the northern ECS. Using 16 day composite satellite-derived chlorophyll-a images, several algal blooms were identified in the CDW and ECS offshore water. Correspondingly, biological DIC drawdown of 73 ± 20 μmol kg−1, oversaturated DO of 10–110 μmol O2 kg−1, and low fugacity of CO2 of 181–304 μatm were revealed in these two waters. YSW also showed CO2 uptake in spring, due to the very low temperature. However, its intrusion virtually counteracted CO2 uptake in the northern ECS. In the CDW and the ECS offshore water, Revelle factor was 9.3–11.7 and 8.9–10.6, respectively, while relatively high Revelle factor values of 11.4–13.0 were revealed in YSW. In the ECS offshore water, the observed relationship between DIC drawdown and oversaturated DO departed from the Redfield ratio, indicating an effect of chemical buffering capacity on the carbonate system during air-sea reequilibration. Given the fact that the chemical buffering capacity slows down the air-sea reequilibration of CO2, the early spring DIC drawdown may have durative effects on the sea surface carbonate system until early summer. Although our study is subject to limited temporal and spatial coverage of sampling, these insights are fundamental to understanding sea surface carbonate chemistry dynamics in this important ocean margin.

Upper ocean responses to category 5 typhoon Megi in the western north Pacific

Category 5 typhoon Megi was the most intense typhoon in 2010 of the world. It lingered in the South China Sea (SCS) for 5 d and caused a significant phytoplankton bloom detected by the satellite image. In this study, the authors investigated the ocean biological and physical responses to typhoon Megi by using chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration, sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface height anomaly (SSHA), sea surface wind measurements derived from different satellites and in situ data. The chl-a concentration (>3 mg/m3) increased thirty times in the SCS after the typhoon passage in comparison with the mean level of October averaged from 2002 to 2009. With the relationship of wind stress curl and upwelling, the authors found that the speed of upwelling was over ten times during typhoon than pre-typhoon period. Moreover, the mixed layer deepened about 20 m. These reveal that the enhancement of chl-a concentration was triggered by strong vertical mixing and upwelling. Along the track of typhoon, the maximum sea surface cooling (6–8°C) took place in the SCS where the moving speed of typhoon was only 1.4–2.8 m/s and the mixed layer depth was about 20 m in pre-typhoon period. However, the SST drop at the east of the Philippines is only 1–2°C where the translation speed of typhoon was 5.5–6.9 m/s and the mixed layer depth was about 40 m in pre-typhoon period. So the extent of the SST drop was probably due to the moving speed of typhoon and the depth of the mixed layer. In addition, the region with the largest decline of the sea surface height anomaly can indicate the location where the maximum cooling occurs.

Evaluation of the aerosol models for SeaWiFS and MODIS by AERONET data over open oceans

The operational atmospheric correction algorithm for Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) uses the predefined aerosol models to retrieve aerosol optical properties, and their accuracy depends on how well the aerosol models can represent the real aerosol optical properties. In this paper, we developed a method to evaluate the aerosol models (combined with the model selection methodology) by simulating the aerosol retrieval using the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) data. Our method can evaluate the ability of aerosol models themselves, independent of the sensor performance. Two types of aerosol models for SeaWiFS and MODIS operational atmospheric correction algorithms are evaluated over global open oceans, namely the GW1994 models and Ahmad2010 models. The results show that GW1994 models significantly overestimate the aerosol optical thicknesses and underestimate the Ångström exponent, which is caused by the underestimation of the scattering phase function. However, Ahmad2010 models can significantly reduce the overestimation of the aerosol optical thickness and the underestimation of the Ångström exponent as a whole, but this improvement depends on the backscattering angle. Ahmad2010 models have a significant improvement in the retrieval of the aerosol optical thickness at a backscattering angle less than 140°. For a backscattering angle larger than 140°, GW1994 models are better at retrieving the aerosol optical thickness than the Ahmad2010 models.

Satellite remote sensing of ultraviolet irradiance on the ocean surface

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation has a significant influence on marine biological processes and primary productivity; however, the existing ocean color satellite sensors seldom contain UV bands. A look-up table of wavelength-integrated UV irradiance (280–400 nm) on the sea surface is established using the coupled ocean atmosphere radiative transfer (COART) model. On the basis of the look-up table, the distributions of the UV irradiance at middle and low latitudes are inversed by using the satellite-derived atmospheric products from the Aqua satellite, including aerosol optical thickness at 550 nm, ozone content, liquid water path, and the total precipitable water. The validation results show that the mean relative difference of the 10 d rolling averaged UV irradiance between the satellite retrieval and field observations is 8.20% at the time of satellite passing and 13.95% for the daily dose of UV. The monthly-averaged UV irradiance and daily dose of UV retrieved by satellite data show a good correlation with the in situ data, with mean relative differences of 6.87% and 8.43%, respectively. The sensitivity analysis of satellite inputs is conducted. The liquid water path representing the condition of cloud has the highest effect on the retrieval of the UV irradiance, while ozone and aerosol have relatively lesser effect. The influence of the total precipitable water is not significant. On the basis of the satellite-derived UV irradiance on the sea surface, a preliminary simple estimation of ultraviolet radiation’s effects on the global marine primary productivity is presented, and the results reveal that ultraviolet radiation has a non-negligible effect on the estimation of the marine primary productivity.

Diurnal Variability of Turbidity Fronts Observed by Geostationary Satellite Ocean Color Remote Sensing

Monitoring front dynamics is essential for studying the ocean’s physical and biogeochemical processes. However, the diurnal displacement of fronts remains unclear because of limited in situ observations. Using the hourly satellite imageries from the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) with a spatial resolution of 500 m, we investigated the diurnal displacement of turbidity fronts in both the northern Jiangsu shoal water (NJSW) and the southwestern Korean coastal water (SKCW) in the Yellow Sea (YS). The hourly turbidity fronts were retrieved from the GOCI-derived total suspended matter using the entropy-based algorithm. The results showed that the entropy-based algorithm could provide fine structure and clearly temporal evolution of turbidity fronts. Moreover, the diurnal displacement of turbidity fronts in NJSW can be up to 10.3 km in response to the onshore-offshore movements of tidal currents, much larger than it is in SKCW (around 4.7 km). The discrepancy between NJSW and SKCW are mainly caused by tidal current direction relative to the coastlines. Our results revealed the significant diurnal displacement of turbidity fronts, and highlighted the feasibility of using geostationary ocean color remote sensing technique to monitor the short-term frontal variability, which may contribute to understanding of the sediment dynamics and the coupling physical-biogeochemical processes.