Lake / reservoir / estuary temperature

Owned by Maiwenn Herpe
Last updated: Jun 24, 2021 by Frederika Mourot
2 min read

Satellite(s)

Landsat-5 and Landsat-7.

Monitoring element

Water temperature.

Satellite(s)

Landsat-5 and Landsat-7.

Monitoring element

Water temperature.

Description technique

Schaeffer et al. (2018) derived temperature data from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper and Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus thermal band products and used water quality in-situ data validation.

Accuracy / Resolution

Mean absolute error :

  • 1.34°C in lake pixels >180 m from land

  • 4.89°C at the land-water boundary

  • 1.11°C in estuaries based on comparison against discrete surface in situ measurements

Case study

35 lakes and reservoirs and 24 estuaries in the U.S.

Benefits

  • Due to the high performance of open water pixels, Landsat satellite data may supplement traditional in situ sampling by providing data for most U.S. lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries over consistent seasonal intervals (even with cloud cover) for an extended period of record of more than 35 years.

  • Comparison of in situ water temperature measurements with Landsat derived surface water temperature measurements indicates that absolute errors were within 2°C, and that the stability of the Landsat algorithm is sufficient for determining seasonal trends and assessing inter-annual variability of lake, reservoir, and estuarine temperatures

Limitations

This method and especially the validation process can be limited by inland waterbody spatial and temporal representativeness for in situ temperature samples.

Applicability for Northland

Yes, seems likely.

The resolution of the imagery utilised may limit the potential applications (e.g., size of the water bodies and monitoring frequency), as well as the availability of in-situ surface water temperature measurements. However, this approach also provides an opportunity for water quality managers and stakeholders to have a uniform satellite dataset and a consistent approach for determining lake, reservoir, and estuarine temperatures.

Publication reference

Schaeffer BA, Iiames J, Dwyer J, Urquhart E, Salls W, Rover J, Seegers B. 2018. An initial validation of Landsat 5 and 7 derived surface water temperature for U.S. lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 39(22):7789-7805. doi:10.1080/01431161.2018.1471545.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2018.1471545

Other references

Layden A, Merchant C, MacCallum S. 2015. Global climatology of surface water temperatures of large lakes by remote sensing. International Journal of Climatology. 35(15):4464-4479. doi:10.1002/joc.4299.

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/joc.4299