Monitoring of Algal Blooms in the Indian Seas

Photo courtesy: NASA
Chlorophyll-a, the dominant photosynthetic pigment of phytoplankton—an index of phytoplankton biomass, is used as the primary parameter for the remote detection of algal blooms.

Abstract: The present century is experiencing frequent widespread occurrences of algal bloom events in different regions of the world’s oceans. The bloom events more often deteriorate the functions of the ecosystem. Therefore, fishermen, fishery resource managers, researchers, ecologists, pollution monitoring agencies and environmentalists demand continuous monitoring of bloom episodes. This article presents the satellite based algal bloom detection and monitoring service of ESSO-INCOIS for the Indian waters.

The authors are Project Scientist B, Scientist C and Scientist E respectively with Earth System Sciences Organisation-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS) and are part of the Ocean Information and Forecast Service Group (ISG). aneesh@incois.gov.in. The article should be cited as Baliarsingh S.K., A. Samanta and A. Lotliker, 2020. Monitoring of Algal Blooms in the Indian Seas, Geography and You, 20(6-7): 62-67