Detection of the Rhone River plume using NOAA-AVHRR data comparison with hydrodynamic modeling results

The purpose of this paper is to understand the hydrodynamic and sedimentary processes associated to the Rhone river plume (Gulf of Lions, north-west Mediterranean sea). For this study, we use two complementary tools, satellite observations and a 3D hydrodynamic model. In the first part, remote sensing algorithms are described, especially the sea water reflectance and the total suspended matter concentration computation. In the second part, generalities about the study area are presented concerning the wind in the Gulf of Lions and the freshwater discharge variations of the Rhone river. The last part of this paper describes the study of real cases, in which satellite observations and modeling results of the river plume are compared. We were interested in two situations differing from one another in wind and outflow conditions. The shape and the extension of the computed surface sediment plume are in good agreement with observations for both situations. The study of computed oceanic parameters, the chronology of simulations allow a better understanding of satellite observations.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.