Daniela Gurlin will defend her dissertation, "Exploration of near infrared-red models for the remote estimation of chlorophyll-a concentration in optically complex turbid productive waters: from in situ measurements to aerial imagery," at 9:30 a.m., Thursday, May 3, in 901 Hardin Hall. Anatoly Gitelson is her adviser.
Abstract
Today the water quality of many inland and coastal waters is compromised by cultural eutrophication in consequence of increased human agricultural and industrial activities. This is reflected in an increase in productivity and changes in the phytoplankton species composition with possible harmful algae blooms. The optical complexity of inland and coastal waters makes the application of remote sensing techniques to monitor the productivity of these waters a difficult task. This study presents a technique for the estimation of chlorophyll-a concentrations, a measure of the productivity of waters and one of the standard water quality parameters for the evaluation of the trophic state of inland and coastal waters, for in situ and aircraft data. The developed algorithms make it possible to estimate chlorophyll-a concentrations without the need for analytical measurements and provide important information for the estimation of the productivity in coastal waters for studies of the carbon budget when they are applied to satellite data.