Measuring Water Quality From Outer Space
USING SATELLITES to measure water quality A team of international researchers has recently demonstrated that water quality can be assessed from outer space. Researchers from the University of Leicester, the Hungarian Academy of Science and industrial partners published in Elsevier, have successfully used satellite technology to visualize pollution levels otherwise invisible to the human eye through ‘Superhero vision’. While these methods have previously been used for seas and oceans, they are not readily available for lakes, especially shallow lakes with complex optical environments defined by a mix of different natural substances in the water. The study focused on Lake Balaton, which is Central Europe’s largest lake and a popular tourist spot. The lake’s “very shallow depth means that Balaton is a unique system, as both a habitat
