• News
  • Lake Facts
  • About

Lake Scientist

New satellite technology helps track Australia’s blue-green algae

0
  • by Patrick Bello
  • — June 11, 2011
Example of a heat map produced by a Blue Water Satellite, depicting phosphorus concentrations in Western Lake Erie.

Example of a heat map produced by a Blue Water Satellite, depicting phosphorus concentrations in Western Lake Erie.

Hiding within Australia’s picturesque coastal areas are enormous blooms of cyanobacteria. The blue-green algae have plagued the nation’s coasts for years, thanks to eutrophication, still waters, and the hot Australian sun. But new GIS surveying technology will now make tracking the blooms much more efficient.

A satellite from Bowling Green-based company Blue Water Satellite processes raw data from two Landsat USGS satellites using proprietary algorithms. The system combs every pixel of an area for signs of toxic algae activity. The technology relies on identifying the levels of total phosphorescence of every single pixel of a scanned image.

Dramatic heat-map like pictures are produced, allowing researchers to focus on areas that contain high levels of contamination. Using total phosphorescence, researchers are able to see measurements of chlorophyll-a, cyanobacteria, and phosphorous in the water and even surface soils.

Previous attempts to monitor the cyanobacteria have seen success, but the processes used were not aggressive enough, Jim Harpen, manager of business development and collaborations for Blue Water Satellite, told Storm Water Solutions.

“They’ve been testing for cyanobacteria in Australia for years, but all they’d been doing was taking a few liters of water and sending them to labs for analysis,” Harpen said. He added the spot sampling method did not do enough to determine the location and drift of a body of water over thousands of acres in size and simply expanding the number of spot sampling sites would be impractical. Harpen said he hopes the Blue Water Satellite will be the answer to this large-scale sampling problem.

Toxic algal blooms – a sign of rivers under stress [Australian Academy
of Science] What are Harmful Algae? [IOC of UNESCO] Blue Water Satellite Inc. Wins Contract to Seek Out Toxic Algae in Australia [Storm Water Solutions]

Image Credit: http://www.bluewatersatellite.com/

Share

You may also like...

  • Jefferson Project Prepares For Winter On Lake George
  • Climate change could worsen Ohio’s blue-green algae problem, increase floods
  • Acton Lake a training ground for lake scientists
  • algal toxins alzheimer's Algal Toxins And Alzheimer’s

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

FishSens SondeCAM HD
  • Recent Posts

    • Sampling on Lake St. Clair, July 29, 2013.Research Brief: Contaminants in a Great Lakes Urban-Dominant WatershedJune 2, 2023
    • Sea LampreyResearch Brief: Incorporating the Two-Eyed Seeing Approach into Sea Lamprey ManagementMay 26, 2023
    • USCGC Mackinaw Entering Duluth HarborResearch Brief: Full-Year Zooplankton Dynamics Along a Nearshore Depth GradientMay 19, 2023
    • Image of Lake 239 at IISD Experimental Lakes Area from aboveResearch Brief: Using Sediment DNA to Determine Long-Term Cyanobacterial DynamicsMay 12, 2023
    • Crystal Clear Problems: Impacts of Water Transparency in Aquatic EcosystemsMay 1, 2023
  • Popular Tags

    Great Lakes research pollution Lake Erie research summary Product Spotlight invasive species Algae international runoff Lake Michigan Ohio dissolved oxygen nutrient-loading EPA temperature eutrophication toxic waters climate change USGS ice phosphorus Asian Carp Michigan restoration

©2023 Fondriest Environmental Inc. | Questions? Call 888.426.2151 or email customercare@fondriest.com