Dynamics of the Estuarine Turbidity Maximum Zone from Landsat-8 Data: The Case of the Maroni River Estuary, French Guiana
| Type | Article | ||||||||
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| Date | 2020-07 | ||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||
| Author(s) | Abascal-Zorrilla Noelia1, Vantrepotte Vincent2, Huybrechts Nicolas3, 4, Ngoc Dat Dinh5, Anthony Edward J.1, 6, Gardel Antoine1 | ||||||||
| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-CNRS, UG, IFREMER (LEEISA URS 3456), Centre de Recherche de Montabo, 97334 Cayenne, French Guiana 2 : Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences, Université du Littoral-Côte-d’Opale, CNRS, Université de Lille, 32 Avenue Foch, 62930 Wimereux, France 3 : Cerema, HA Research Team, 134 rue de Beauvais, 60280 Margny-lès-Compiègne, France 4 : Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire Roberval—FRE UTC—CNRS 2012, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, Centre de Recherche de Royallieu CS 60319, 60203 Compiègne, France 5 : Space Technology Institute, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay, Hanoi 100000, Vietnam 6 : Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, INRA, Coll France, CEREGE UM 34, 13545 Aix-en-Provence, France |
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| Source | Remote Sensing (2072-4292) (MDPI AG), 2020-07 , Vol. 12 , N. 13 , P. 2173 (23p.) | ||||||||
| DOI | 10.3390/rs12132173 | ||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 14 | ||||||||
| Keyword(s) | estuarine turbidity maximum, Landsat-8, tropical estuary, mud banks, French Guiana | ||||||||
| Abstract | The estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM) zone occurs in river estuaries due to the effects of tidal dynamics, density-driven residual circulation and deposition/erosion of fine sediments. Even though tropical river estuaries contribute proportionally more to the sediment supply of coastal areas, the ETM in them has been hardly studied. In this study, surface suspended particulate matter (SPM) determined from OLI (Operational Land Imager)-Landsat 8images was used to gain a better understanding of the spatio-temporal dynamics of the ETM of the tropical Maroni estuary (located on the Guianas coast, South America). A method to estimate the remotely-sensed ETM location and its spatiotemporal evolution between 2013 and 2019 was developed. Each ETM was defined from an envelope of normalized SPM values > 0.6 calculated from images of the estuary. The results show the influence of the well-marked seasonal river discharge and of tides, especially during the dry season. The ETM is located in the middle estuary during low river-flow conditions, whereas it shifts towards the mouth during high river flow. Neap–spring tidal cycles result in a push of the ETM closer to the mouth under spring-tide conditions or even outside the mouth during the rainy season. An increase in SPM, especially since 2017, coincident with an extension of the ETM, is shown to reflect the periodic influence of mud banks originating from the mouth of the Amazon and migrating along the coast towards the Orinoco (Venezuela). These results demonstrate the advantages of ocean color data in an exploratory study of the spatio-temporal dynamics of the ETM of a tropical estuary, such as that of the Maroni |
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