Validation of satellite data for quality assurance in lake monitoring applications

The operational application of remote sensing technologies to lake water quality monitoring requires products derived from remote sensing to be quantitatively self-consistent and have a certified accuracy. Fundamental elements in this quality assurance framework are sensor radiometric calibration and atmospheric correction models, which are briefly discussed in the paper. In order to evaluate the accuracy of present operational techniques to retrieve basic parameters from satellite data, such as water-leaving radiance and reflectance, an experiment was organised in the frame of SAtellite remote sensing for Lake MONitoring (SALMON), a European Union co-funded research project. A series of ship-based radiometric and atmospheric measuring campaigns were conducted on Lake Iseo and Lake Garda (Italy) together with limnological sampling. Four Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) scenes were acquired during different seasons and simultaneous in situ measurements were made. After the radiometric calibration procedure, satellite digital images were processed by applying two entirely image-based atmospheric correction models. These models account for the effects of both additive scattering and multiplicative transmittance effects in the atmosphere on the at-satellite measured signal. The results achieved using these procedures were evaluated by comparing satellite-based estimates with in situ measurements of water reflectance. The root mean square difference between Landsat TM-derived reflectance values and ground measurements was close to 0.010 reflectance for each TM spectral band. Such image-based correction models, requiring no in situ field measurements during the satellite overpass, constitute a valid method of lake water monitoring.