Remote Sensing of SST Around the Outfall of A Power Plant from LANDSAT and NOAA Satellites

Hung-Hao Chuang* Ruo-Shan Tseng**

Satellite data from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and NOAA Advenced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) were used to derive the sea surface temperature (SST) of coastal waters and thermal effluent from Hsinta Power Plant. Ground truth temperatures measured simultaneously from a ship as Landsat passed were used to compare with the satellite SST. Two methods were used to estimate the atmospheric correction of TM-derived SST. Local radiosonde measurements were used in Lowtran7 program to estimate the atmospheric effects, sea surface radiances and the atmospheric transmittances. The mean deviation of satellite-estimated SST from the ship-measured SST is 0.94 'C if the atmospheric correction process is applied, otherwise it will be over 7 'C. Secondly, a scheme combining NOAA-AVHRR and Landsat-TM was used to derive SST. The advantage of this scheme is that AVHRR-SST has included the atmospheric correction. The mean deviation between the ground truth and satellite- derived SST from this scheme is 1.01 'C for the thermal plume of Hsinta power plant, and 0.62 'C for Tseng-Wen estuarine waters, respectively.

*M. S., Department of Marine Resource, National Sun Yat – Sen University

**Associate Professor, Department of Marine Resource, National SunYat - Sen University.

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