Satellite ocean-colour remote sensing of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park

Report: TR 2013/51

Author: M Pinkerton, S Wood, J Zeldis, M Gall (National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd)

Abstract

Waikato Regional Council seeks to use satellite remote sensing methods to provide spatial data on ocean colour, to help management of the Hauraki Gulf region.

Coastal waters exhibit high natural variability in their characteristic properties, both spatially and seasonally. Observations of the ocean from optical sensors on satellites can complement measurements of water properties from boats and moorings, and provide synoptic distributions of these properties over large areas, at daily and longer timescales.

Local (regional) validation and tuning of processing methods is required to use satellite observations. In-water measurements of total suspended matter (TSM) and chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration (a proxy for phytoplankton biomass) in the Hauraki Gulf region were assembled to assess and develop “locally-tuned” satellite processing methods.

These locally-tuned algorithms were applied to more than a decade of satellite observations from the NASA MODIS-Aqua sensor, in order to assess typical conditions and characterise variability of water constituents.

Satellite ocean-colour remote sensing of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park [PDF, 1.4 MB]