Temporal and Spatial Variability of Sea Surface Temperature within Indonesian Regions Revealed by Satellite Data

To understand variability of sea surface temperature (SST) within the northern (Malacca Strait, South China Sea, Sulawesi Sea:, Pacific Ocean of North Papua) middle (Java Sea, Makassar Strait, Molucca Sea, Banda Sea) and southern (Indian Ocean of West Sumatera, South Java-Nusa Tenggara, Arafura Sea) regions of the Indonesian seas, a series of the SST satellite data derived from NOAA-A VHRR Pathfinder 5 with 4 km spatial resolution in the period of 1985-2005 and MODIS data of Level 3 with 9 km spatial resolution in the period of 2000-2005 were collected. The observation results show that the SST within the Indonesian seas has increased though it was annually fluctuated. The SST changes within the Indonesian seas show geographical variability as response to the global, regional and local environmental changes i.e., in the Indian Ocean, SST change was strongly affected by the upwelling occurrences stimulated by the dynamics of the ENSO, while in the Makassar Strait it was influenced by the Indonesian Through Flow and in the South China Sea, the Malacca Strait, the Pacific Sea of the north Papua, the Sulawesi Sea, the Molluca Sea, the Banda Sea and the Arafura Sea they were influenced by the environmental change of the Pacific Ocean as response to the ENSO dynamics.