Feasibility of Red Tide Detection Around Korean Waters Using Satellite Remote Sensing

The monitoring activities at the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) in Korea have been extended to include all the coastal waters of Korea after the outbreak of Cochlodinium polykrikoides blooms in 1995. We used several alternative methods including climatological analysis, spectral and optical methods which may offer potential detection of the major species of red tide in Korean waters. In the climatological analysis, NOAA, SeaWiFS, OCM satellite data was chosen using the known C. polykrikoides red tide bloom data and the area was mapped by helicopter reconnaissance and ground observation. The relationship between the distribution of sea surface temperature to C. polykrikoides bloom areas was studied. The anomalies of SeaWiFS chlorophyll a imageries against the imageries of non-occurring red tide for August, 2001 showed where the C. polykrikoides occurred. The anomalies of chlorophyll a concentrations from the satellite data during red tide outbreaks showed a similar distribution of C. polykrikoides in the red tide in August, 2001. The distribution between differences in sea surface temperatures during the day and at night also showed a possibility for red tide detection. We used a corrected vegetation index (CVI) to detect floating vegetation and submerged vegetation containing algal blooms. The results of from the optical absorption of C. polykrikoides in the ultraviolet band (340 nm) showed that if we use the optical characteristics from each red tide, we will be able to establish the feasibility of red tide detection.