Ocean Chlorophyll-a retrieval using GF1-WFV data-a case study of the central Bohai Sea

Abstract Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration is an important indicator of phytoplankton bloom and water eutrophication. It is also a basic parameter of water quality. Remote sensing technology has been widely used for water quality monitoring in the past. In this study, the Chinese GF1 (Gaofen-1) WFV (Wide Field of View) images acquired on May 19th, 2016 were used to retrieve Chl-a concentration of central Bohai sea in order to assess the recovery condition of marine ecosystem which has been seriously polluted by the Penglai 19-3 platform oil spill accident in 2011. The remote sensing model of Chl-a concentration was developed using the linear regression method. The leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) method showed that the average relative error and root mean square error (RMSE) between retrieved Chl-a concentration and in situ measurement was 11.67% and 0.1808, respectively. It indicated that the remote sensing model could correctly reflect the Chl-a concentration and its spatial distribution of the study area. The average Chl-a concentration in the buffer regions with the distance of 2km, 4km, 6km to the Penglai 19-3 platform was 0.32μg/L, 0.37μg/L and 0.40μg/L, respectively. They were in normal range and lower than that of the coastal waters. The spatial distribution of the result was similar to previous studies of Bohai sea in spring. These results indicated that Chl-a concentration of central Bohai sea was returned to normal after oil spill accident occurred for 5 years. The growth of phytoplankton in surface seawater has been returned to normal. The major causes for Chl-a concentration in the Bohai Sea was the land-sourced pollutant during the study period