An evaluation on the proximity of satellite- and model-based datasets of temperature and chlorophyll-a in coastal areas of İskenderun Bay

Abstract

This study investigates the monitoring of sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll-a (chl-a) levels in Iskenderun Bay using satellite and modeling data and evaluates the possible use of these datasets for monitoring marine ecosystems. Datasets derived from MODIS-Aqua satellite imagery and modeling data obtained from the Copernicus MyOcean and in-situ measurements were used in the study. According to the analysis on paried data sets of the distribution of SST and chl-a, sattelite and model datasets showed statistically significant correlations with in-situ measurements for SST. However, only satellite dataset showed significant correlations for Chl-a. Evaluations on uncertainty of the data sets revealed that the satellite dataset had a narrower range and less outlier distribution for SST. For chlorophyll-a, both datasets had wide uncertainty ranges and required further improvement. This study highlights the potential of satellite and model datasets for monitoring SST and chl-a variations in Iskenderun Bay.