Assessing spatial and temporal variability in phytoplankton concentration through Chlorophyll-a satellite data: A case study of northern Arabian sea

This study focuses on applying remote sensing technology to identify and assess seasonal and intra-annual variation of phytoplankton availability. a standard modis algorithm for chlorophyll-a,is used to obtain a variation of phytoplankton with the help of modis time series images from april 2011 to march 2012 that describe the situation for a whole year,we also used periodical data for each three months,i.e.,from april 2011 to june 2011,july 2011 to september 2011,october 2011 to december 2011 and finally january 2012 to march 2012. chlorophyll-a (chl-a),products were retrieved from the sensor data that demonstrates the spatio-temporal variability of phytoplankton concentration in the northern arabian sea near the coastline and open sea water of pakistan,india,iran and oman. high concentration of chl-a,were observed during two periods august to september and february to march respectively. it was also revealed that chl-a,concentration was almost identical between the latitude 20 and 21 degrees n throughout the year. © 2015,pakistan botanical society. all rights reserved.