Analysis of the effective observation of ocean color satellites of the Yellow and East China Seas

ABSTRACTBased on long time series of merged ocean color products (2003–2016) from the ESA GlobColour dataset, spatial and temporal distributions on effective observation days of ocean color satellites of the Yellow and East China Seas are analyzed. The results show that the average number of effective observation days for the region is 51 ± 6.8 days per year. Large numbers of such days appeared for the West Korea Bay and western Liaodong Bay, at 100 ± 8.3 days per year. Small numbers of days appeared for the southwestern southern Yellow Sea, northwestern East China Sea, and the branch of Kuroshio Current region, at 40 ± 10.1 days per year. Effective observation days of the Yellow and East China Seas had strong seasonal characteristics. The Bohai Sea, northern Yellow Sea, and southern Yellow Sea had two peaks in March and October. The East China Sea had a single peak in July. A lack of effective observation reduces the quality of monthly ocean color products, with greater than 15% bias if the monthly data ...