Microwave remote sensing for marine monitoring: An example of Enteromorpha prolifera bloom monitoring

The bloom of algae called Enteromorpha prolifera posed a potential threat to the Olympic sailing competition in June 2008. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology plays an irreplaceable role in algal blooming monitoring. Based on the analysis of various influence factors, a procedure for E.P. detection is proposed. In this paper, multi-temporal SAR images especially with short time interval, currents datum from buoys and wind products retrieved from SeaWinds scatterometer have been employed for E.P. dynamic monitoring and drift trend analysis. The result of analysis shows SAR, currents and wind datum are available for forecasting the trend of the E.P. drift.