Monitoring of the Sea Surface Temperature in the Saemangeum Sea Area Using the Thermal Infrared Satellite Data

The Saemangeum Reclamation Project was launched as a national project in 1991 to reclaim a large coastal area of 401 km(2) by constructing a 33-km long dyke. The final dyke enclosure in April 2006 has transformed the tidal flat into lake and land. The dyke construction has abruptly changed not only the estuarine tidal system inside the dyke, but also the coastal marine environment outside the dyke. In this study, we investigated the spatial change of SST distribution using the Landsat-5/7 and NOAA data before and after the dyke completion in the Saemangeum area. Satellite-induced SST was verified by compared with the various in situ measurements such as tower, buoy, and water sample. The correlation coefficient resulted in above 0.96 and RMSE was about 1(circle)C in all data. 38 Landsat satellite images from 1985 to 2007 were analyzed to estimate the temporal and spatial change of SST distribution from the beginning to the completion of the Samangeum dyke's construction. The seasonal change in detailed spatial distribution of SST was measured, however, the estimation of change during the Saemangeum dyke's construction was hard to figure out owing to the various environmental conditions. Monthly averaged SST induced from NOAA data from 1998 to 2007 has been analyzed for a complement of Landsat's temporal resolution. At the inside of the dyke, the change of SST from summer to winter was large due to the relatively high temperature in summer. In this study, multi sensor thermal remote sensing is an efficient tool for monitoring the temporal and spatial distribution of SST in coastal area.