Potential of using multispectral satellite images to study the dispersion of superficial plumes of effluents from the Outfall Wastewater of Santos - SP plume; submarine outfall; satellite images; Sentinel-2.

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate the potential of using high spatial resolution images from the multispectral Sentinel-2 satellite to study the dispersion of surface effluent plumes from the Santos Submarine Outfall. The images were processed, classified and compared between 3 different algorithms to determine the best result. The study demonstrated its potential to be used for the preliminary identification of changes in status around the studied area. The Sentinel-2 images have a good potential for these types of studies, and may be applicable to the identification of plumes from underwater outfalls, being that of the nine images obtained over 12 months, in most cases the plume was visible with relevant area on the sea surface.