A dynamic sediment model based on satellite‐measured concentration of the surface suspended matter in the East China Sea

The concentration of total suspended matter (TSM) at the sea surface is derived from satellite data using a complex proxy TSM model in East China Sea from 1997 to 2008. The structure of the mean TSM image is similar to that of the topography, indicating that the distribution of the surface concentration is strongly related to the water depth. A dynamic sediment model (DSM) is constructed to relate the TSM concentration at the sea surface with suspended sediment at the benthic boundary layer, the Rouse number, and the water depth. The DSM model is improved through iteration with a convergence identified by the mean relative difference between two adjacent bottom TSM images which becomes smaller with the more iterations and the value is less than 1% after 50 iterations. The performance of the DSM model is validated by satellite-measured concentration with a mean relative error of 5.2% for the monthly mean images. The DSM model is used to deduce the bottom TSM concentration at the benthic boundary layer and the distribution of the Rouse number. The spatial distribution of the sea surface TSM concentration is determined predominately by both the bottom suspended sediment concentration and water depth. The temporal variation of the sea surface concentration mainly depends upon the Rouse number in the water column. Our result shows that the discharge of the Changjiang River can change the distribution of the Rouse number to form a band-shaped region in the Changjiang Estuary. The DSM model provides a framework for understanding some of the mechanisms of the formation and variation of the primary TSM plume and the secondary plume in the ECS. The primary TSM plume corresponds approximately to the region with depth shallower than 20 m and the secondary plume corresponds to the region with depths between 20 and 50 m.