Remote sensing of the Yellow Sea green tide in 2014 based on GOCI

This paper monitored the outbreak of green tide in the Yellow Sea, China, in 2014 based on GOCI remote sensing image and NDVI extraction method, combined with GIS (Geographical Information System) and visual interpretation technologies. The results show: the green tide is firstly found in the open waters near Yancheng, Jiangsu Province in mid May, and drifted from the southwest to the northeast direction. When reached the neighboring waters between Jiangsu and Shandong in early June, the green tide entered an outbreak stage and reached the maximum coverage area of 2206.54 km2 in 18, June. In early July, the green tide began into a recession stage until all died in early August while its frontline preserved in Yantai – Weihai – Qingdao. Our work shows GOCI image with high temporal resolution is available for the study of migration path and drift speed of green tide.