Unlocking Landsat's Potential to Explain the Longest Series of Sea Surface Temperature

Landsat satellites play an important role in effectively tracking and documenting oceanographic changes within estuaries resulting from natural and anthropogenic events. Long-term Sea Surface Temperature (SST) records from high-resolution Landsat images offer valuable insights into estuarine productivity and climatological characteristics. Our study utilized in-situ corrected multi-satellite Landsat data and tide gauges to investigate the SST variability and tidal forcing over 39 years in Narragansett Bay and neighboring Mt. Hope Bay. Pattern recognition techniques like Empirical Orthogonal Function decomposition revealed that the seasons account for up to 89% of the variabilities. Annual temperature trends exhibited discernible increases in the bays. The upper bay showed greater sensitivity to SST changes than the lower bay, influenced by the bay's bathymetry. Additionally, signal-to-noise ratio analysis underscored the robustness of Landsat imagery in capturing tidal signatures, particularly during low tides. In the future, we aim to further our understanding of the complex dynamics of other estuaries and inform decision-making processes in coastal management and conservation.