ABSTRACT
Water clarity is a key parameter for assessing changes of aquatic environment. Coastal waters are complex and variable, remote sensing of water clarity for it is often limited by low spatial resolution. The Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI) imagery with a resolution of up to 10 m are employed to solve the problem from 2017 to 2021. Distribution and characteristics of Secchi disk depth (SDD) in Jiaozhou Bay (JZB) are analyzed. Subtle changes in localized small areas are discovered, and main factors affecting the changes are explored. Among natural factors, precipitation and wind play dominant roles in variation in SDD. Human activities have a significant influence on transparency, among which fishery farming has the greatest impact. This is clearly evidenced by the significant improvement of SDD in JZB due to the sharp decrease in human activities caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).Copyright © 2022 The Authors