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Seasonal variation of the surface chlorophyll distribution along the British Columbia coast as shown by CZCS satellite imagery
Author(s) -
Pan D.,
Gower J. F. R.,
Borstad G. A.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1988.33.2.0227
Subject(s) - upwelling , oceanography , submarine pipeline , phytoplankton , continental shelf , satellite , environmental science , eddy , chlorophyll a , satellite imagery , ocean color , cloud cover , geology , climatology , meteorology , geography , cloud computing , turbulence , chemistry , botany , organic chemistry , aerospace engineering , nutrient , computer science , engineering , biology , operating system
A series of 40 satellite images from the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) on the Nimbus‐7 satellite is used to examine variation of the surface phytoplankton distribution along the coast of British Columbia from March to October 1979. Coverage is limited by cloud and restricted scheduling of satellite observations, but the images show the major patterns of the spring bloom, the subsequent high phytoplankton levels on and near the continental shelf, and large‐scale phytoplankton patterns farther offshore. Occasional cloud‐free images show eddies, fronts, and filaments in great detail. Over intervals of a few days, the boundary of the more highly pigmented coastal water is displaced offshore at a rate that appears correlated with the local Bakun upwelling index. Values of chlorophyll concentration derived from the satellite data are in agreement with ship data collected near the coast to within ±40% over the range 0.5–3 mg m −3 but seem to underestimate the much higher values (up to 20 mg m −3 ) recorded in ship observations on the continental shelf.