Remote Sensing of Chlorophyll and Sea Surface Temperature in Indian Water with Impact of 2004 Sumatra Tsunami

The daily and weekly averaged Indian Remote Sensing satellite IRS-P4 Ocean Color Monitor (OCM) derived chlorophyll images were generated and interpreted in terms of pretsunami, tsunami, and posttsunami periods in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. There has been observation of increase in chlorophyll concentration up to 5.0 mg/m3 in the tsunami-affected coastal waters. The high chlorophyll concentration lasted for about one week after the tsunami catastrophe. The standard deviation for different transects in the tsunami-affected water were plotted. The high chlorophyll has been observed for selected transects in the aftermath of the tsunami event in coastal regions, and offshore water has also shown increase in chlorophyll concentration (∼1.0 mg/m3) in the Bay of Bengal. The analysis indicated that the tsunami waves might have displaced and spread the high chlorophyll coastal water towards offshore. NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua daytime sea surface temperature (SST) daily images were retrieved and displayed during December 21, 2004, to January 6, 2005, and indicated the cooling (0.5-1°C) in the Bay of Bengal around Tamil Nadu and Andhra coast. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Prediction-National Center for Environment Prediction (NOAA-NCEP) data for five weeks (December 9, 2004-January 12, 2005) were retrieved to study the SST variability trend in prior to MODIS data and indicated 0.5-1°C cooling of the Bay of Bengal water off Kakinada, Chennai, Cuddalore, and Nagapattinam region on December 26 and 28, 2004.