Seasonal Evolution of Environmental Indicators in Narragansett Bay

Estuarine environments are transition regions in which freshwater output from rivers mixes with ocean currents, thereby providing organic matter to the upper ocean. In New England, estuaries are a key part of the state economy. Nonetheless, research on the seasonal covariation of marine environmental proxies and their link to anthropogenic climate change remains to be studied. In this talk, we use multi-satellite data from NASA's Landsat program from 1984 to 2021 in Narragansett Bay and its neighboring Mt. Hope Bay. We evaluate the dominant interannual spatial and temporal patterns in sea surface temperature (SST), chlorophyll-a (Chl), and sea surface salinity (SSS) via an Extended Empirical Orthogonal Function (EEOF) decomposition. Leveraging this framework, we analyze the seasonal and decadal variability and covariance of SST, Chl, and SSS within the estuary. Going forward, our goal is to provide a robust analysis of the evolution of environmental indicators to inform policy-making in Narragansett Bay.