MODIS-Based Radiometric Color Extraction and Classification of Inland Water With the Forel-Ule Scale: A Case Study of Lake Taihu

Serious difficulties are present in the application of remote sensing techniques for optically complex waters, as retrieval of water quality parameters is generally based on detailed local knowledge of optical properties of water bodies for specific areas and at specific times. Water color is measured in traditional water quality observations and characterized by the Forel-Ule scale, as it is intimately related to water compositions. In this paper, a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) based water color extraction and classification approach is developed and applied to Lake Taihu. By using MODIS data together with field data, we attempted to 1) retrieve the dominant wavelength of water color and classify water color into FU-classes; 2) analyze the relationship between water color dominant wavelength and the abundance of optically active component (OACs) in water; and 3) discover seasonal variations of water color based on Lake Taihu. Our results show that the dominant wavelength exhibits some relationship with the three types of OAC concentrations under certain conditions, particularly TSM and Chl-a; inorganic suspended matter (ISM) can be retrieved by using MODIS derived dominant wavelength in appropriate water body. Moreover, differences in water quality for different seasons can be detected by dominant wavelength and FU-class with some prior knowledge of the studied water. Therefore, dominant wavelength may be used as a comprehensive and promising indicator of water quality situation even though much work has to be done in the future to optimize the analyses and verify it on diverse sites.