Quantification of the Total Suspended Matter Concentration around the Sea Breaking Zone from In Situ Measurements and Terra/Aster Data

Abstract

Remote sensing techniques can be used to quantify the total suspended matter concentration (TSM). The main objective of this study is the quantification of the TSM concentration around the sea breaking zone for a particular area of the Portuguese coast, near Aveiro city. The methodology used was based on in situ measurements and on multispectral satellite image from TERRA/ASTER. In situ experimental techniques were used to determine a relationship between the TSM concentration and the seawater reflectance. Empirical relationships were established between TSM concentration and the equivalent reflectance values for TERRA/ASTER at visible and near infrared bands computed from the experimental data. The reflectance values had a very high correlation with the TSM concentration in the wavelength between 500 and 900 nm. The ASTER image was calibrated, atmospherically and geometric corrected. Equations of linear, polynomial, logarithmic, power and exponential models were applied. The best results were found with the linear and polynomial models, with a determination factor higher than 0.95. However, the differences in the TSM concentration calculated for the three bands indicate that we should not use the information of a single band to obtain the TSM concentration.

Keywords:

• coastal zone
• empirical models
• multispectral satellite images
• TSM concentration

This work was done within the COSAT (coastal zones monitoring using remote sensing satellite data) project, financed by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) through the POCTI/FEDER program.