Suspended sediments constitute an important component of water color, and high concentrations of suspended particulate matter in coastal waters directly affect or control numerous water column and benthic processes. In this paper, the utility of MODIS 250 m and 1 000 m data for analyzing turbid coastal waters was examined in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. With a set of processing procedures, the authors used MODIS images in the 250 m model and the 1 000 m model to map the concentrations of suspended sediments. The results were compared with the in-situ data set collected in April 2003. This study demonstrates that the moderately high resolution of MODIS 250 m data is useful in examining the evolutionary process of materials in coastal environments, particularly the smaller water bodies such as bays and estuaries, and that the 1000 m data are perfect in mapping the concentrations of suspended matter in open coastal waters.