International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Developing MODIS-based retrieval models of suspended particulate matter concentration in Dongting Lake, China
Introduction
Suspended particulate matter (SPM, including organic and inorganic matter) is one of the main constituents of case-II waters, and it greatly affects water quality and aquatic ecosystems, such as transporting nutrients and contaminants, declining water clarity and reducing light transmission through water column (Kirk, 1994, Davies-Colley and Smith, 2001, Cigizoglu and Kisi, 2006, Giardino et al., 2010, He et al., 2013, Long and Pavelsky, 2013, Xing et al., 2013). SPM concentration (CSPM) is an important parameter describing water quality (Zhang et al., 2003, Pozdnyakov et al., 2005, Uddin et al., 2012), and obtaining its spatiotemporal distribution information is thus necessary for understanding, managing and protecting aquatic ecosystems.
Remote sensing techniques have been widely applied to obtain the spatiotemporal information of CSPM since the first Landsat satellite's launch in 1972. Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a key instrument aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). With their advantages of medium spatial resolution, daily coverage, high sensitivity and cost-free distribution (Li and Li, 2004, Miller and McKee, 2004), MODIS images have been frequently employed to retrieve CSPM values during the past decade (Table 1). Furthermore, the two MODIS sensors have collected more than 10-year massive data of the Earth's surface, and such an image archive provides great opportunity to monitor and analyse the long-term spatiotemporal dynamics of the Earth's surface parameters like CSPM.
There are three kinds of retrieval models generally applied to estimate the water quality parameters (including CSPM) of case-II waters: empirical, semi-empirical and semi-analytical models. Empirical model is based on the bi-variate or multivariate regressions between remote sensing data and measured water quality parameters; semi-empirical model is generally be used when the spectral characteristics of the parameters of interest are known, and such spectral characteristics are included in the statistical analysis by focusing on well-chosen spectral areas and appropriate wavebands; and analytical model determines the water quality parameter values from remote sensing data based on the relations of water quality parameter values, inherent optical properties, apparent optical properties and the top-of-atmosphere radiance captured by remote sensing sensor (Giardino et al., 2007).
The semi-analytical models, due to their relatively good theory, might be more unified for different water bodies compared with the empirical and semi-empirical ones (Sipelgas et al., 2009, Binding et al., 2010, Morozov et al., 2010); however, their applications are limited because of the difficulties or inaccuracies in obtaining model-driving parameters, such as the absorption and backscattering coefficients of main water constituents (Ma et al., 2010). Thus, empirical and semi-empirical models are now frequently employed to estimate CSPM values (Table 1) since they are simple and easy to be developed. Most MODIS-based empirical and semi-empirical CSPM models apply red and/or near infrared band, however, their types (e.g. linear, cubic and exponential) and fitting accuracies (determination coefficient (R2) = 0.58–0.92) varied at different water bodies or different seasons (Table 1). These studies indicate that an empirical or semi-empirical model might generally need to be calibrated when it is applied to different water bodies or seasons, possibly due to their different water constituents and different optical properties. Therefore, it is necessary to develop suitable MODIS-based CSPM retrieval models for a specific water body.
Dongting Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in China. To date, few remote sensing techniques have been employed to study the water quality of this lake from our knowledge and literature review, such as the Hyperion image was applied to analyse the spatial variation of water quality parameters in East Dongting Lake (Mo et al., 2013). This study aimed to develop MODIS-based CSPM empirical retrieval models of Dongting Lake, which is theoretically and practically meaningful for exploring the potential of MODIS images in retrieving the CSPM of Dongting, for obtaining its spatiotemporal information and further for understanding, managing and protecting this ecosystem.
Section snippets
Study area
Dongting Lake (110°40′–113°10′E, 28°30′–30°20′N) is located at the south of the middle Yangtze River (Fig. 1), and it is a large and shallow freshwater lake in China (Ding and Li, 2011). The lake area fluctuates from <500 km2 in the dry seasons (e.g. December–February) to around 2500 km2 in the flood seasons (e.g. July–August) (Huang et al., 2012). Dongting Lake is divided into three parts (East, South and West), in which the East Dongting is the biggest one. The waters of Dongting Lake are
Results
The statistics of CSPM measurements on 31 August 2012, 14 June 2013 and 17 September 2013 are shown in Table 2. The CSPM values between the two years have statistically significant difference at a significance level of 0.05 (z-test for mean difference: mean CSPM on 31 August 2012 = 12.58 ± 13.75 mg/l, mean CSPM on 14 June 2013 = 10.83 ± 10.42 mg/l, z = 2.45, p = 0.014); their difference, however, was not very large (mean difference < 5 mg/l, the highest value difference < 5 mg/l). Compared with the CSPM values
Discussion
Scale is an important factor affecting the developments of water quality retrieval models. In developing models, one image pixel covers a certain area (about 250 × 250 m2 for MODIS red and near infrared bands), while it corresponding water quality parameter value is generally derived from the water sample collected at one certain location. There exists a scale gap between image pixel and water quality parameter measurement, and thus it is generally assumed that the water quality parameter values
Conclusion
An exponential model of the MODIS red minus SWIR band at 1240 nm was developed (CSPM = 3.04 exp(20.23(Rrs(645) − Rrs(1240))), R2 = 0.68, SE = 6.96 mg/l, F = 231.10), and it obtained acceptable result for estimating CSPM values in Dongting Lake. The model lays foundation for obtaining the spatiotemporal distribution information of CSPM from historic MODIS image achieve, and will be helpful for understanding, managing and protecting Dongting ecosystem.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41171290 and 40971191).
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