Antti Lindfors

Point or pointless – quality of ground data

A method for measuring continuously the inherent optical properties of water together with the salinity and the temperature values was developed and tested at the Division of Geophysics, University of Helsinki. The flow‐through system operates from a moving boat and has been used to collect parameters for optical modelling, coastal zone and inland water studies and to track the path of the fresh water spreading into sea areas. The system was also used in Lake Vänern, Sweden, to calculate the radiance reflectance, R r, and total back‐scattering efficiency, b b eff, along a transect. An example from the Gulf of Finland is presented, which shows how the spectral behaviour of light changes when moving away from a fresh water source. Data collected from the River Kymijoki estuary showed that the details in a rapidly changing environment were strongly smoothed in a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data image. The correlation for continuously measured scattering values and MODIS channel 1 data varied between 0.70 and 0.85, n = 126. Flow‐through measurement datasets can be used to obtain representative sites for vertical profiles or calibration measurements.

Monitoring of spatial water quality in lakes by remote sensing and transect measurements

New tools, such as intensive measurements, together with advanced mathematical models, are increasingly needed in water management and environmental research. The new approaches are being developed at Pyhäjärvi, a large (155 km2) lake in southwest Finland. Pyhäjärvi is highly valuable in terms of water supply, fisheries and recreational use. The ecological state of Pyhäjärvi has been closely monitored for decades, particularly since eutrophication became a major concern in the late 1980s. Two relatively new research methods were used to assess the spatial water quality of Pyhäjärvi: (i) transect measurements from a moving boat; and (ii) remote sensing data based estimates. First, a flow-through method from a moving boat was successfully used to collect high resolution transect water quality data from the lake over six field campaigns. The method is relatively accurate but costly, and its use is mostly limited to special campaigns and intensive research, but not for long-term monitoring. Second, remote sensing methods were used to retrieve water quality information which was found consistent with the surface measurements from the boat. The estimation of parameters such as turbidity and humic substance concentration is possible with simple algorithms when using remote sensing (MERIS) data. The quantitative estimation of water quality by the methods used here requires concurrent in situ measurements for algorithm training. These methods will be further developed utilizing frequent on-line water quality and weather data from a recently installed lake float.