ASIAN I-LAC PROJECT AND ITS PROGRESS: OCEAN COLOR MONITORING OF THE ASIAN WATERS AND COASTAL ENVIRONMENTS

摘要

Satellite remote sensing technology for ocean observations has been rapidly advanced in these twenty years. Ocean color is the most important product of satellite measurements on ocean; it has been shown to play important roles in ecological and photochemical processes. This paper reports an ongoing remote sensing project - "Asian I-Lac Project". The Asian I-Lac Project aims at generating a time series ocean color images, including Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM), and Suspended Material (SS). It started from Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS) on board of ADEOS-I, and will'produce a long-term time series images (planned for 10 years from 1996 to 2006) by combining several ocean color satellite data, i.e., ADEOS-I OCTS, SeaWiFS, ADEOS-II GLI, GCOM1B GLI and some other sensors. The Asian waters are related to about 30 Asian countries, representing about 60% of the world population. High spatial resolution (700m) OCTS images have been processed; processing of SeaWiFS images on the Asian waters is on going. OCTS image coverage and data quality were analyzed for the period of November 1996 to June 1997. The data system provides ocean color scientists with capability of testing or developing their algorithm, and transferring images for their research. By analyzing OCTS-derived Chl-a images, we observed sort-term variability of phytoplankton blooms associated with cold SST eddies in the Gulf of Oman in 1996. Distribution pattern of OCTS-derived Chl-a, CDOM and SS have been also analyzed for the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, and the Chinese coastal waters. Results demonstrate the potential of Asian I-Lac Project in research on marine biology, coastal environments, and ocean study.