Effect of tropical storms in the bio-optical properties of coastal waters in Puerto Rico

Through this research we analyze the impact of tropical storms in the ocean color of the Puerto Rico coast. The changes in ocean color are due to the absorption and scattering of light. It has been shown that remote sensing techniques are used as a fast and economical way to study the concentrations of phytoplankton and other water constituents at the ocean. Data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used to generate images of ocean color. We will compare different parameters from the images selected for each case with real discharge data. We observe how all the signals detected through the MODIS sensor are affected based on the discharge and rain data. This means, we compare water color parameters versus meteorological parameters. The used images were downloaded from internet and processed using the program developed by NASA called SeaDAS. The processing involved the standard atmospheric correction and algorithm application proposed by Morel and Prieur (1977) and Gordon (1983). Dramatic changes in ocean color were detected due to tropical storms Earl and Jeanne. The results support the use of remote sensing in this type of assessments and the relationship between the parameters selected.