Investigation of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over Cyprus area

Abstract

The temperature of the sea surface has been identified as an important parameter of the natural environment, governing processes that occur in the upper ocean. This paper focuses on the analysis of the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies at the greater area of Cyprus. For that, SST data derived from MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on board both Aqua and Terra sun synchronous satellites were used. A four year period was chosen as a first approach to address and describe this phenomenon. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has been used as an integrated platform of analysis and presentation in addition of the support of MATLAB®. The methodology consists of five steps: (i) Collection of MODIS SST imagery, (ii) Development of the digital geo-database; (iii) Model and run the methodology in GIS as a script; (iv) Calculation of SST anomalies; and (v) Visualization of the results. The SST anomaly values have presented a symmetric distribution over the study area with an increase trend through the years of analysis. The calculated monthly and annual average SST anomalies (ASST) make more obvious this trend, with negative and positive SST changes to be distributed over the study area. In terms of seasons, the same increase trend presented during spring, summer, autumn and winter with 2013 to be the year with maximum ASST observed values. Innovative aspects comprise of straightforward integration and modeling of available tools, providing a versatile platform of analysis and semi-automation of the operation. In addition, the fine resolution maps that extracted from the analysis with a wide spatial coverage, allows the detail representation of SST and ASST respectively in the region.