Novel cluster modeling for the spatiotemporal analysis of coastal upwelling

Nascimento, Susana; Martins, Alexandre; Relvas, Paulo; Luis, Joaquim; Mirkin, Boris

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/19438

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Abstract(s)

This work proposes a spatiotemporal clustering approach for the analysis of coastal upwelling from Sea Surface Temperature (SST) grid maps derived from satellite images. The algorithm, Core-Shell clustering, models the upwelling as an evolving cluster whose core points are constant during a certain time window while the shell points move through an in-and-out binary sequence. The least squares minimization of clustering criterion allows to derive key parameters in an automated way. The algorithm is initialized with an extension of Seeded Region Growing offering self-tuning thresholding, the STSEC algorithm, that is able to precisely delineate the upwelling region at each SST instant map. Yet, the application of STSEC to the SST grid maps as temporal data puts the business of finding relatively stable "time windows", here called "time ranges", for obtaining the core clusters onto an automated footing. The experiments conducted with three yearly collections of SST data of the Portuguese coast shown that the core-shell clusters precisely recognize the upwelling regions taking as ground-truth the STSEC segmentations with Kulczynski similarity score values higher than 98%. Also, the extracted time series of upwelling features presented consistent regularities among the three independent upwelling seasons.