Remote Sensing Estimation of Sea Surface Salinity from GOCI Measurements in the Southern Yellow Sea

Knowledge about the spatiotemporal distribution of sea surface salinity (SSS) provides valuable and important information for understanding various marine biogeochemical processes and ecosystems, especially for those coastal waters significantly affected by human activities. Remote-sensing techniques have been used to monitor salinity in the open ocean with their advantages of wide-area surveys and real-time monitoring. However, potential challenges remain when using satellite data with coarse spatiotemporal resolutions, leading to a loss of valuable information. In the current study, based on the local dataset collected over the southern Yellow Sea (SYS), a region-customized algorithm was developed to estimate SSS by using the remote sensing reflectance. The model evaluations indicated that our algorithm yielded good SSS estimation, with a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.29 psu and a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 0.75%. Satellite-derived SSS results compared well with those derived from in situ observations, further suggesting the good performance of our developed algorithm for the study regions. We applied this algorithm to Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) data for the month of August from 2011 to 2018 in the SYS, and produced the spatial distribution patterns of the SSS for August of each year. The SSS values were high in offshore waters and lower in coastal waters, especially in the Yangtze River estuary. The negative correlation between the monthly Changjiang River discharge (CRD) and SSS (R = −0.71, p < 0.001) near the Yangtze River estuary was observed, suggesting that the SSS distribution in the Yangtze River estuary was potentially influenced by the CRD. In offshore waters, the correlation between SSS and CRD was weak (R < 0.2), suggesting that the riverine discharge’s effect might be weak.