Recipes for the Derivation of Water Quality Parameters Using the High-Spatial-Resolution Data from Sensors on Board Sentinel-2A, Sentinel-2B, Landsat-5, Landsat-7, Landsat-8, and Landsat-9 Satellites

Satellites have provided high-resolution (<100 m) water color (i.e., remote sensing reflectance) and thermal emission imagery of aquatic environments since the early 1980s; however, global operational water quality products based on these data are not readily available (e.g., temperature, chlorophyll-a, turbidity, and suspended particle matter). Currently, because of the postprocessing required, only users with expressive experience can exploit these data, limiting their utility. Here, we provide paths (recipes) for the nonspecialist to access and derive water quality products, along with examples of applications, from sensors on board Landsat-5, Landsat-7, Landsat-8, Landsat-9, Sentinel- 2A, and Sentinel-2B. We emphasize that the only assured metric for success in product derivation and the assigning of uncertainties to them is via validation with in situ data. We hope that this contribution will motivate nonspecialists to use publicly available high-resolution satellite data to study new processes and monitor a variety of novel environments that have received little attention to date.

Automated summary

This article introduces methods for obtaining water quality products using satellite data and aims to motivate non-specialists to utilize high-resolution satellite data to study and monitor novel environments that have received little attention.