Effects of spatial resolution on the satellite observation of floating macroalgae blooms

Abstract

Satellite images with different spatial resolutions are widely used in the observations of floating macroalgae booms in sea surface. In this study, semi-synchronous satellite images with different resolutions (10 m, 16 m, 30 m, 50 m, 100 m, 250 m and 500 m) acquired over the Yellow Sea, are used to quantitatively assess the effects of spatial resolution on the observation of floating macroalgae blooms of Ulva prolifera. Results indicate that the covering area of macroalgae-mixing pixels (MM-CA) detected from high resolution images is smaller than that from low resolution images; however, the area affected by macroalgae blooms (AA) is larger in high resolution images than in low resolution ones. The omission rates in the MM-CA and the AA increase with the decrease of spatial resolution. These results indicate that satellite remote sensing on the basis of low resolution images (especially, 100 m, 250 m, 500 m), would overestimate the covering area of macroalgae while omit the small patches in the affected zones. To reduce the impacts of overestimation and omission, high resolution satellite images are used to show the seasonal changes of macroalgae blooms in 2018 and 2019 in the Yellow Sea.