Long Term Investigation of SST Regime Variability and Its Relationship with Phytoplankton in the Caspian Sea Using Remotely Sensed AVHRR and SeaWiFS Data

Long term Sea Surface Temperature variability and its relation with, chlorophyll (chl) pigment of phytoplankton biomass were investigated using SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing Wide Field of-view Sensor) and AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) satellite imagery. SST acquired from AVHRR (1985 to 2009) showed seasonal, annual and inter-annual variability of temperature. Monthly variability chl from SeaWiFS 1985 to 2009 has also been investigated, Correlation between SST and chl was found to be 78% and significant at P<0.05.