CHLOROPHYLL ESTIMATION OF LAKE WATER AND COASTAL WATER USING LANDSAT-8 AND SENTINEL-2A SATELLITE

Abstract. Chlorophyll-a is an optically active compound (OAC) commonly used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass in an aquatic environment. Retrieving the concentration of chlorophyll-a remains a challenge due to the presence of several OAC particularly in water bodies which are in proximity to the land-based activities. In this study, an effort has been made to estimate the chlorophyll-a concentration of both the freshwater Lake Biwa and the coastal water of Wakasa Bay in Japan. A spectral decomposition algorithm was used to determine the chlorophyll-a using the satellite images. The algorithm was applied to the satellite images from two different sensors namely Landsat-8/OLI and Sentinel-2A/MSI. The satellite-derived chlorophyll-a concentration for the lake and coastal water from two different sensors were compared to assess the performance of both the sensors. The accuracy of the chlorophyll-a results derived from the images was evaluated with the in-situ measurement data of the chlorophyll-a for the Lake Biwa and the coastal water of Wakasa Bay. Both satellite sensors appear to give the best results for the coastal water (R² > 0.80) with an RMSE < 0.3 μg/L. However, slight underestimation of chlorophyll-a noted for the Landsat-8 image with an increase in chlorophyll-a concentration. For the lake water, Sentinel-2A results were relatively better (R² > 0.70) than Landsat-8, with an RMSE of < 1.0 μg/L. The obtained results will be useful to evaluate the primary productivity of both freshwater and coastal water body.