A study of total suspended solid (TSS) from satellite imagery and ground truth data at Merang and Rompin coastal area

Abstract

Total Suspended Solid (TSS) is the solid materials either organic or inorganic which are suspended in water column. TSS can be one of the main factors of water quality at water body. A study was done around Merang coastal area on 20th June 2011 to 22nd June 2011 and Rompin coastal area on 30th June 2011 to 1st July 2011 and 21st October 2011. The objectives of this study are to find the concentration of TSS at Merang and Rompin coastal area and to determine the correlation between satellite image data and ground trothing data of Total Suspended Solid in Rompin and Merang coastal area. 1 7 sampling station were sampled for each location make it 3 5 station were sampled. The range of TSS at Merang coastal area is between 0.7 mg/L to 12.3 mg/L. The highest concentration for TSS at Merang is station 9 with 12.3 mg/L. For Rompin coastal area, the range ofTSS is between 0.7 mg/L to 13.1 mg/L. The highest concentration at Rompin is at station 13 which is at 13.1 mg/L. From the MODIS data, the highest concentration of TSS at Merang coastal area is at station 1 with 1.03 mg/L, while for Rompin coastal area is at station 11 with the value 1.13 mg/L. The regression analysis shows that the R2 between ground truths with imagery data is 0.143 and the root mean square error (RMSE) is 1.931. The study shows that the TSS was not accurately estimated and this might be cause by the less number on sampling stations, lack of optical data on the sampling location, the other region of algorithm used, and also lack of imagery data at the sampling period. The objective for this study was achieved. For further study, more field data is required, the usage of cloud free image, the development of own algorithm for South China Sea is required, The other necessary parameter for optical data need to be taken in order to built own region of algorithm.