Synergistic Effect of Multi-Sensor Data on the Detection of Margalefidinium polykrikoides in the South Sea of Korea

Since 1995, Margalefidinium polykrikoides blooms have occurred frequently in the waters around the Korean peninsula. In the South Sea of Korea (SSK), large-scale M. polykrikoides blooms form offshore and are often transported to the coast, where they gradually accumulate. The objective of this study was to investigate the synergistic effect of multi-sensor data for identifying M. polykrikoides blooms in the SSK from July 2018 to August 2018. We found that the Spectral Shape values calculated from in situ spectra and M. polykrikoides cell abundances in the SSK were highly correlated. Comparing red tide spectra from near-coincident multi-sensor data, remote-sensing reflectance (R-rs) spectra were similar to the spectra of in situ measurements from blue to green wavelengths. R-rs true-color composite images and Spectral Shape images of each sensor showed a clear pattern of M. polykrikoides patches, although there were some limitations for detecting red tide patches in coastal areas. We confirmed the complementarity of red tide data extracted from each sensor using an integrated red tide map. Statistical assessment showed that the sensitivity of red tide detection increased when multi-sensor data were used rather than single-sensor data. These results provide useful information for the application of multi-sensor for red tide detection.