Analysis and Detection of Mucilage Bloom from Multispectral Satellite Images

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to detect and observe the mucilage formations in the Sea of Marmara by means of Sentinel-2A satellite data. For this purpose, we produce mucilage index maps by utilizing the relationship between the spectral bands of Sentinel-2A. Sentinel-2A has four 10m fine bands and six 20m coarse bands. To compute the mucilage index, the spectral bands must have the same spatial resolution. Although the Sentinel-2A does not have a panchromatic band, the spatial resolution of the 20m bands can be increased to 10m thanks to its four fine bands. Based on the results of this analysis, we utilize seven of the existing image fusion approaches to enhance the spatial resolution of 20m bands to 10m. We monitor changes in mucilage formations over time with the mucilage maps acquired by using fused images through the mucilage index.