Abstract:

This dataset contains the sargassum coverage in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico detected using both Landsat remote sensing images and airborne AVIRIS data. The mean Sargassum coverage during the four quarters of 2010 for the study region are also provided. Dataset results are provided in Excel format and correspond to the the publication: Hu, C.; Hardy, R.; Ruder, E.; Geggel, A.; Feng, L.; Powers, S.; Hernandez, F.; Graettinger, G.; Bodnar, J.; McDonald, T. (2016). Sargassum coverage in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico during 2010 from Landsat and airborne observations: Implications for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impact assessment. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 107:15-21 (doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.04.045).

Suggested Citation:

Feng, Lian and Chuanmin Hu. 2017. Landsat based Sargassum coverage in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, 2010. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7W9575M

Publications:

Hu, C., Hardy, R., Ruder, E., Geggel, A., Feng, L., Powers, S., … McDonald, T. (2016). Sargassum coverage in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico during 2010 from Landsat and airborne observations: Implications for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impact assessment. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 107(1), 15–21. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.04.045

Purpose:

To infer how much Sargassum might have been in contact with oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Data Parameters and Units:

The contents of the three excel files are: Landsat_airborne_statistics_20140302.xlsx: Landsat and airborne-derived Sargassum fractional coverage under various observing conditions, date (MM/DD/YYYY), Sargassum (percentage), Airborn Sargassum fraction, Notes; ngom2010SargEst_withoutRow42_20150801.xlsx: Scaled sargassum percent coverage using Landsat observations using two different methods, the results for four different seasons were illustrated in “method1PathSummaryGraphs” and “method1OilSummaryGraphs”, and the differences between two methods were listed in “Ratio_Method2_vs_Method1' Months, Scaled Sargassum coverage (percent), Area of oil (km^2); ngom2010sargPctCov.xlsx: The individual landsat scenes used in 2010, the fields of interest are: Scene ID, Image date (MM/DD/YYYY), Month, Year, Path, Row, FA_Pixels (algae pixels), SA_Pixels (searched area pixels), pctCoverage (percent coverage), scaledPctCov (scaled percent coverage), scaledPctCovCiLl (scaled percent coverage, conf. interval lower limit), scaledPctCovCiUl (scaled percent coverage, conf. interval upper limit), faAreaEstimateKM2 (area of Sargassum in km2), scene_idx (scene identifier, path##_row##); AVIRIS_Flightline_Data.xlsx: Flight name, Date (MM/DD/YYYY), Site name, Investigator, Comments, # of samples, # of lines, Pixel size (m), Solar elevation (degrees), Solar azumith (degrees), Rotation, Start latitude (decimal degrees), Start longitude (decimal degrees), End latitude (decimal degrees), End longitude (decimal degrees), Start time (GMT), End time (GMT), Download

Individual Files: