An optical assessment of the nelson/hayes river plume dispersion extent in hudson bay (canada)

Abstract

The Nelson/Hayes River (NHR), located in the southwestern edge of the Hudson Bay (HB) (Canada) (Fig. 1) contributed approximately 47% of the mean annual discharge of the western HB during the period 1964-2013 (Déry et al, 2016). This voluminous freshwater input controls the ocean processes in the south western to southern HB. Moreover hydroelectric regulation of the Nelson River has modified the discharge resulting in an increased winter discharge and flattened summer hydrograph . This called for a need to investigate the revised seasonal signals of the river runoff in a spatio-temporal scale. Ocean color remote sensing approach provides a convenient way to study the mixed layer processes within the photic depth limit (Wozniak et al, 2010). This study has attempted to detect the NHR plume dispersion limit using color dissolved organic matter (CDOM) as the ocean color proxy for terrestrial discharge, (Fichot et al, 2013).