High-resolution satellite turbidity and sea surface temperature observations of river plume interactions during a significant flood event

摘要

Sea surface temperature (SST) and turbidity (T) derived from Landsat 8 (L8) imagery were used to characterize river plumes in the northern Adriatic Sea (NAS) during a significant floodevent in November 2014. Circulation patterns and sea surface salinity (SSS) from an operational coupledocean-wave model supported the interpretation of the plumes' interaction withthe receiving waters and among them.There was a good agreement of the SSS, T, and SST fields at thesub-mesoscale and mesoscale delineation of the major river plumes. L8 30 mresolution also enabled the description of smaller plume structures. Thedifferent plumes' reflectance spectra were related to the lithologicalfingerprint of the sediments in the river catchments.Sharp fronts in T and SST delimited each single river plume. The isothermsand turbidity isolines' coupling varied among the plumes due to differencesin particle loads and surface temperatures in the discharged waters. Thesurface expressions of all the river plumes occurring in NAS were classifiedbased on the occurrence of the plume dynamical regions in the L8 30 mresolution imagery.