Use of GOCI-II images for detection of harmful algal blooms in the East China Sea

The East China Sea (ECS) has experienced severe harmful algal blooms (HABs) that have deleterious ecological effects on marine organisms. Recent studies indicated that deploying of a second geostationary ocean color imager (GOCI-II) can significantly improve ocean monitoring. This study systematically assessed GOCI-II and its ability to detect HABs and distinguish between dinoflagellates and diatoms in the ECS. First, the remote-sensing reflectance ( $${R}_{rs}\left(\lambda \right),$$ $$\lambda$$ represents the wavelength) obtained from GOCI-II was compared to the local measurement data. Compared to the bands at 412 and 443 nm, the bands at 490, 510, and 620 nm exhibited excellent consistency, which is important for HAB detection. Second, four different methods were employed to extract bloom areas in the ECS: red tide index (RI), spectral shape (SS), red band line height ratio (LHR), and algal bloom ratio ( $${R}_{AB}$$ ). The SS (510) algorithm was the most applicable for detecting blooms from GOCI-II imagery. Finally, the classification capability of GOCI-II for dinoflagellates and diatoms was evaluated using three existing algorithms: the bloom index (BI), combined $$Prorocentrum donghaiens$$ index (PDI) and diatom index (DI), and the spectral slope ( $${R}_{\_slope}$$ ). The BI algorithm yielded more satisfactory results than the other algorithms.