Advanced water quality monitoring of optically variable lake systems using Landsat 8 OLI and Sentinel 2 MSI imagery in an automated high-performance computing environment

Abstract

In lake-rich regions, like Minnesota USA, protecting water quality is critically important because of the ecological and economic importance of recreational activities and tourism. To ensure the health of inland aquatic ecosystems on both a local and regional scale, more comprehensive monitoring techniques to complement conventional field sampling methodologies are needed for effective management. For over 25 years, we have used Landsat imagery for water clarity measurements on 10,000+ lakes at five-year intervals but with recent advancements in spatial, spectral, radiometric, and temporal resolution of satellite imagery we can measure more water quality variables more often.