Training materials for the second NOWPAP Training Course on Remote Sensing Data Analysis
-Lecture sessions-

Introduction to Ocean Color Remote Sensing
Roland Doerffer, Optical Remote Sensing Lab, GKSS Institute for Coastal Research, Germany
Day 1, 9:20 - 10:50
 The introduction lecture into Ocean Colour remote sensing comprises two major parts: (1) the determination of the relationship between water constituents and their inherent optical properties and the water leaving radiance reflectance spectrum and (2) the determination of the influence of atmosphere on this signal at aircraft or satellite altitude. Since the water leaving radiance is small compared to the signal by the atmosphere the correction of the influence of the atmosphere is the most critical step. For the interpretation of the water leaving radiance spectra algorithms have been developed for two different water types: case 1 water, where only phytoplankton determines the variability of water colour, and case 2 water, where also other substances cause the variability. Algorithms for the complex case 2 waters are mainly based on inverse modelling techniques the principles of which will be demonstrated.
Material 1 (PDF)
Material 2 (PDF)
Remote sensing application for eutrophication in Europe
Roland Doerffer, Optical Remote Sensing Lab, GKSS Institute for Coastal Research, Germany
Day 1, 11:00 - 12:30
 One major application of ocean colour remote sensing is to monitor phytoplankton distribution as well as additional variables to study the trophic state and primary production of a region. Of particular interest are also exceptional harmful algal blooms. In this lecture methods will be demonstrated to monitor algal blooms using different remote sensing data, derive primary production parameters and determine primary production in coastal waters in particular of the North Sea, which properties are similar to those of the Yellow Sea between Korea and China. A simple model will be demonstrated to compute primary production for this kind of turbid waters with high concentrations of nutrients, where light can become a limiting factor.
Material (PDF)
Introduction to CEARAC activities
Genki Terauchi, Special Monitoring and Coastal Environmental Assessment Centre, NOWPAP
Day 1, 13:30 - 14:30
 Some of the useful satellite data distribution system will be introduced during the lecture. Trainees can learn how to order and obtain satellite data images and products from various satellite data distribution systems such as NASA ocean color web, Marine Environmental Watch Project Homepage and JAXA MODIS Near Real time Data System. Through the lecture, trainees are expected to understand the differences among the various satellite data systems.
Material (PDF)
Remote sensing application for monitoring and assessment of eutrophication in the NOWPAP region
Joji Ishizaka, Faculty of Fisheries, Nagasaki University, Japan
Day 2, 9:00 - 10:00
 Northwestern Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) is one of the regional action plans of United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and the plan covers the Japan/East Sea, Yellow Sea and East China Sea surrounded by China, Korea, Japan and Russia. In the NOWPAP region, environmental change has been reported recently, such as frequent occurring of extensive red tides and massive appearance of large jelly fish. Ship observation in this area is not easy because of the complex relationship between countries, and satellite observation is the key to understand the environmental change of this area.
 In this lecture, examples of analysis of satellite ocean color data as an indicator of eutrophication in the Japan/East Sea, Yellow Sea and East China Sea.
Material (PDF)
Estimation of Primary Production with Satellite Ocean Color Data
Joji Ishizaka, Faculty of Fisheries, Nagasaki University, Japan
Day 2, 10:00 - 11:00
 Primary production is one of the most important parameters for both fisheries management and for understanding of global carbon cycle.  Measurements of primary production have been dependent on incubation method with carbon isotope, and the value is believed to be close to net primary production. It is usually expressed as carbon uptake for photosynthesis per unit area/volume per unit time, and function of light, temperature, nutrients, phytoplankton community and other factors. There have been many models to estimate primary production with satellite ocean color data.
 In this lecture, definition, importance and methods of primary production measurements and estimation will be covered.

Material (PDF)
Methods for Atmospheric correction of satellite ocean-color imagery
Robert FROUIN, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, USA
Day 2, 11:15 - 12:15
 Processes affecting ocean color observed from space, namely gaseous absorption, molecule and aerosol scattering, aerosol absorption, and Fresnel and whitecap reflection, will be described. An general expression for the signal measured at satellite altitude will be derived, taking into account the various interactions within the ocean-atmosphere system. Useful atmospheric functions will be defined. Approaches to atmospheric correction of satellite ocean-color imagery will be presented. They include utilizing near-infrared observations to estimate aerosol scattering, matching spectral observations with simulations, minimizing atmospheric and surface effects, exploiting multi-angular information, and analysing principal components of the top-of-atmosphere signal and marine reflectance. The ability of the methods to handle situations of Case 2 waters, absorbing aerosols, Sun glint, and clouds will be examined
Material 1 (PDF)
Material 2 (PDF)
Estimation techniques of Chlorophyll-a concentration by remote sensing
Sun Ling, National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administration, China
Day 3, 9:00 - 10:30
 Chlorophyll a concentration (Chl-a) is an indicator of phytoplankton biomass and can be estimated on a global or regional scale using remotely sensed ocean color. In this lecture, we will quickly review the oceanic optical properties which are the basis of Chl-a estimation from ocean color. Then the widely used and operational global Chl-a estimation models are discussed, including empirical and semi-analytical models. Global models tend to be impropriate for regional Case 2 waters. So, the local Chl-a models and preliminary results in China coastal regions are shown. Besides, the recent achievements in the YOC (Ocean Color Project of Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem Project) with a common dataset are presented. At last, the ocean color products of Chinese FY3A MERSI (Medium Resolution Spectral Imager) are briefly introduced.
Material (PDF)
Satellite estimation of components of a budget of the shortwave solar radiation at the sea surface and in the near surface ocean
Oleg KOPELVICH, Ocean Optics Laboratory, Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
Day3, 10:45 - 12:15
 A problem of satellite estimation of a budget of ultraviolet and visible solar radiation at the sea surface and in the near surface ocean is considered. The focus is on the budget components (incident, reflected, water-leaving, penetrating to the different depths, and absorbed at the water column) of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) important for marine primary production and influence on the thermal structure and heat content in the upper layer.
Satellite estimation of components of PAR radiation requires solution of two difficult problems. The first is a development of models and algorithms for fast computation of the radiation transfer in the atmosphere-ocean system with the rough sea surface. The second is an inverse problem to derive from satellite data the input parameters of the atmosphere and ocean required for the computation.
The solutions of the both problems and the error estimates are considered. Some results of computations are demonstrated and discussed. Effects of different factors are analyzed.
Material (PDF)
Detection of HABs/Redtides
Palanisamy Shanmugam, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, India
Yu-Hwan Ahn, Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, Korea
Day 4, 9:00 - 10:30
 During the last few decades, several planktonic dinoflagellates (including C. polykrikoides) have caused mass mortality, physical impairment, and numerous ecological and health impacts in Northwest Pacific (NWP) waters. In order to detect, monitor, forecast and mitigate the impact of such harmful algal blooms (HABs) at local, regional and global scales, remote sensing technology has been recognized as a key element as it provides relatively high frequency synoptic information over large areas. Several of previous studies attempted to detect and monitor HABs based on satellite-derived chlorophyll or chlorophyll anomaly. However, accurate detection of these blooms seemed ineffective because of the absence of contemporaneous observations of the documented blooms by satellites. Though high chlorophyll anomaly is not always necessarily due to harmful blooms because other non-HAB species can often exhibit similar pigment concentrations or the cases of less photosynthetic red tide organisms may produce weaker chlorophyll signature that cannot be captured from the chlorophyll anomalous image, satellite-derived pigment products most likely suffer from uncertainties in atmospheric correction and bio-optical algorithms, caused by coastally influenced colored dissolved organic and particulate inorganic components and perhaps even a shallow bottom. For that reason, delineation of a particular phytoplankton species was accomplished with the development of robust techniques based on unique optical properties of harmful algae, for example, the backscattering/Chl ratio algorithms. However, operational use of these methods would be successful only in waters with less abundance of dissolved organic and particulate inorganic matters. To overcome the limitations and problems associated with the above methods, recent studies needed to look for other methods based on fluorescence line height (FLH) measurements from satellite or in-situ data. Although these methods significantly improve the detection of HABs, their products are still questionable in coastal waters because of the high SS concentrations.
 Thus, remote sensing requires robust, quantitative, and cost-effective methods to detect and characterize various HABs in coastal and offshore waters. Here we demonstrate the performance of red tide index algorithms to detect and monitor a wide range of HABs using SeaWiFS images in NWP waters. The initiation, transport and dispersion of these blooms are compared with the sea surface temperature, sea surface height/geostrophic currents, and wind fields. The results indicate that surface circulation and coastal eutrophication are major factors to influence the coastal distribution and retention of blooms and transport them from the shelves to offshore or from the offshore to shelves regions.
Material (PDF)
Monitoring of coastal and marine environment by remote sensing (I): A case study in Korea
Hong-Rhyong Yoo, Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute, Korea 
Day 4, 10:45 - 12:15
Monitoring of coastal and marine environment by remote sensing (II): A case study in Korea
Joo-Hyung Ryu, Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute, Korea
Day 4, 13:30 - 14:30
 The project "Optimum Utilization of Satellite Data for Ocean Research" would be a typical case study for Monitoring of coastal and marine environment by remote sensing in Korea. It aims to improve applications of satellite remote sensing in ocean research and to contribute to the sustainable development and environmental preservation of the Earth's oceans.
Initiated as "Public Application Research of Satellite Data" which is a cooperative project between the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI) and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) the project focuses on two main activities: expansion of satellite data user base, particularly among non-specialists through the Cyber Center for Ocean Remote Sensing, and development of basic techniques for applying remote sensing to oceanographic studies.
The Cyber Center provides information on available image data as well as on the environmental situation at the time of image acquisition. It also provides training and education to expand the use of remotely sensed data. Three sub-projects have been undertaken to develop basic techniques for applying satellite-acquired data on oceanographic researches. The "Study of the Coastal Area Using High Resolution Satellite Images" revealed geomorphological changes in tidal flats south of Ganghwado, Korea, based on three-dimensional analysis of digital elevation models (DEMs) obtained from several temporal series of satellite images. Analyses based on algorithms for detecting red tides developed through the sub-project "Application of Ocean Color Images"revealed that red tides from the East Sea of China re-occurred in the seas adjacent to Korea by a series of successive reproduction. This process had not been previously documented. The "Application of SAR to the Field of Oceanography" study has sought to improve the use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations to mitigate damage associated with marine disasters and for coastal management. The project results should contribute to the optimum utilization of Korean satellites such as KOMPSAT and COMS and to the improvement of research output for studies based on satellite remote sensing.
Material 1 (PDF)
Material 2 (PDF)
Introduction to ocean data distribution system
Joo-Hyung Ryu, Chan-Su Yang, Yu-Hwan Ahn, Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute, Korea
Day 4, 14:30 - 15:30
 In Ansan (the headquarter of KORDI ; Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute), KOSC(Korea Ocean Satellite Center) is being prepared for acquisition, processing and distribution of sensor data via L-band from GOCI(Geostationary Ocean Color Imager) instrument which is loaded on COMS(Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite); it will be launched in 2009. The basis equipment of KOSC(Electric power, Network, Security) has been constructed in 2007. KOSC is being constructed data processing and management system, GOCI L-band reception system, etc. The final object of KOSC is that maximize the application of GOCI.
In worldwide the operational oceanographic systems have been setup to fulfill various demands. In this lecture the recent efforts to develop Korea Operational Oceanographic System (KOOS) in Korea will be introduced. The total 79 real-time ocean/coastal observing stations (tidal stations, buoys, light towers, etc.) which are part of KOOS are operating by several organizations such as National Oceanographic Research Institute (NORI), Korea Meteorological Agent (KMA), and Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI). After proper calibration all obtained data are used to hindcast/nowcast/forecast for various applications such as tides, storm surges, currents, and so on. KOOS is contributed as a part of North East Asian Regional - Global Ocean Observing System (NEAE-GOOS) which is a subset of GEOSS (Global Earth Observing System of Systems).
Material (PDF)
Introduction to ocean monitoring activities in Korea
Sang-Woo Kim, Nation Fisheries research & Development Institute, Korea
Day 4, 16:00 - 17:30
NFRDI (National Fisheries Research and Development Institute) has been receiving the satellite data since 1989 and operating four kinds of the earth observing satellites. The satellite ocean information are obtained the sea surface temperature data, which is related to the cold water mass, thermal front etc in Korean waters, from the NOAA satellite series and the MTSAT (Multi functional Transport Satellite) satellite, and the ocean color data such as phytoplankton pigment, turbid water distributions from the SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field of view Sensor) and MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellites. The monitored data in Korean waters are distributed through the website of the NFRDI, the public PC communication network and a facsimile system on a daily base.
 The objective of this lecture is to evaluate the usefulness of remote sensing techniques as a monitoring tool for the marine environment in Korean waters. Also, I would like to introduce about the ocean monitoring activities of NFRDI in Korea.
Material (PDF)
-Hands-on sessions-

Hands-on Practice on WIM/WAM
Dr. Mati Kahru, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, USA
Day 1-3
 A set of practical hands-on training on WIM/WAM software to learn how to visualize and analyze satellite data images will be conducted during the course.
By the end of the course, trainees are expected to obtain knowledge and skill on; how to obtain, process and analyze satellite data images of chlorophyll-a concentration and SST.
Contents:
  1. Getting started
    Material (PDF)
  2. Basics of digital image analysis
    Material (PDF)
  3. Basics of satellite image analysis
    Material (PDF)
  4. Exericises with level 2 satellite data
    Material 1 (PDF)
     Material 2 (PDF)
  5. Exericises with L3 time series movie
    Material (PDF)
  6. Time series with L3 ocean color data
    Material (PDF)
  7. Detecting global changes in phytoplankton bloom magnitude
    Material (PDF)
  8. Validation of satellite data
    Material (PDF)
Introduction to SeaDAS
Hee-Jeong Han, Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute, Korea
Day 5, 10:30 – 12:15
 The SeaDAS software is rolled to data processing software of many ocean color imaging sensors on sun-synchronous satellite, especially the SeaWiFS on OrbView2 and the MODIS on Aqua. We can overview of this software and developing history, related documents/links, supported data formats and operating systems, and hardware/software requirements for installing. And then I introduce to the procedures of installation and configuration of seadas. So we can see seadas major functions for data processing and analysis. These data processing functions have so many options for many derived products related on ocean color algorithms. For data display, the software is supported powerful menu like griding/ coast line/ subscene/ zooming/ data picking by mouse/ making ascii/binary/image file from original data, etc. I demonstrate these functions on my linux laptop. Finally, I introduce the windows version seadas developed by KORDI and the GOCI data processing system (GDPS).
Material (PDF)
Hands on exercises on Level-2 Chlorophyll-a concentration data
Genki Terauchi, Special Monitoring and Coastal Environmental Assessment Centre, NOWPAP
Day 5, 13:30 – 17:30
 Level-2 Chlorophyll-a concentration data will be ordered from NASA Ocean Color Web. Obtained data then will be mapped and composited to create time series graphs to understand inter-annual and seasonal variability of Chlorophyll-a concentration. This lecture provides hands-on guidance on how to order Level-2 Chlorophyll-a concentration and process those obtained data for time series analysis.
Material (PDF)