Marine Biology Commons^™

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (Modis) Observations Of Cyanobacteria Blooms In Taihu Lake, China, Chuanmin Hu, Zhongping Lee, Ronghua Ma, Kun Yu, Daqiu Li, Shaoling Shang

Marine Science Faculty Publications

A novel approach was used with data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to characterize the intense blooms of cyanobacteria (primarily Microcystis aeruginosa) in Taihu Lake, China's third largest freshwater lake. The approach involves first deriving a floating algae index (FAI) based on the medium‐resolution (250 and 500 m) MODIS reflectance data at 645, 859, and 1240 nm after correction of the ozone/gaseous absorption and Rayleigh scattering effects and then objectively determining the FAI threshold value (−0.004) to separate the bloom and nonbloom waters. By definition, the term “bloom” or “floating algae” refers to bloom where cyanobacteria form …