Studies on the drift of ocean colour features using satellite-derived sea surface wind for updating potential fishing zone

Abstract

Ocean colour features like chlorophyll fronts are widely used for the prediction of Potential Fishery Zones (PFZs). These mesoscale features are dynamic since ocean surface is always in motion. They tend to drift because of surface advective movements. The present study is an attempt to understand the relationship between wind speed and drift of ocean colour features, which can be used to update the location of PFZ mesoscale features. Ocean colour images from IRS-P4 Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) were atmospherically corrected and Ocean Chlorophyll-2 bio-optical algorithm was applied to derive the sea surface chlorophyll. QuikSCAT (NASA) scatterometer wind data was obtained from the global 25 km² gridded dataset. A mathematical relationship between wind speed and drift was derived. The relation was validated on a second set of time series images. Results show that the relation can be used for updating the location of PFZ features in the northeast Arabian Sea for up to 96 hr within an error of 12%.