Investigation of Turbulent Tidal Flow in a Coral Reef Channel Using Multi-Look WorldView-2 Satellite Imagery

The general topic here is the application of high-resolution satellite imagery to the study of ocean phenomena having horizontal length scales of several meters to a few kilometers. The present study investigates whether multiple images acquired quite closely in time can be used to derive a spatial map of the surface current in situations where the near-surface hydrodynamics are dominated by bed-generated turbulence and associated wave–current interaction. The approach is illustrated using imagery of turbulent tidal flow in a channel through the outer part of the Great Barrier Reef. The main result is that currents derived from the imagery are found to reach speeds of nearly 4 m/s during a flooding tide—three times larger than published values for other parts of the Reef. These new findings may have some impact on our understanding of the transport of tracers and particles over the shelf.

• Publication year

  2022

• Venue

  Remote Sensing

• Publication date

  2022-02-08

• Fields of study

  Computer Science, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/rs14030783
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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