Description
Estuaries are water bodies where freshwater from rivers and streams meets with seawater. Coastal and estuarine waters are important to humans as they are highly productive habitats supporting a variety of fish and wildlife. These environments also provide resources, economic benefits, and ecosystem services. That being said, the water quality of these coastal and estuarine areas is of great importance. This is heavily influenced by the flow of nutrients and sediment from land-based sources.
The flow of nitrogen and phosphorus in particular enhances algal bloom and hypoxia in the water, highly affecting benthic creatures such as fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. Water quality in estuaries also depends on several factors such as their size, location, coastal land use, quality of freshwater runoff, and tidal effects from the sea.
Remote sensing observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the Aqua platform have enabled us to monitor coastal and estuarine water quality since mid-2000. With the end of the MODIS mission, it is important to transition to Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) observations to provide continuity with the MODIS instrument and add to the moderate-resolution, long-term data record of water quality monitoring in estuaries.
This intermediate-level webinar, led by NASA's Applied Remote Sensing Training program (ARSET), provides an overview of satellites and sensors used for extending the MODIS long-term water quality time series, specifically focusing on VIIRS image processing using the NASA Ocean Color software, Sea, earth, atmosphere Data Analysis System (SeaDAS). This webinar points out similarities and differences between MODIS and VIIRS and demonstrates water quality monitoring procedures using these sensors in selected coastal and estuarine regions.