Changes in Lake Surface Water Temperature (LSWT) can have strong impacts on the quality of the lake water, the concentration of dissolved gazes, on the lake biology and chemistry and so on. In addition, Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) lists lakes as an important climate variable. Therefore, it is interesting to monitor changes, especially in the lake water temperature. LSWT-monitoring with satellite data can provide continuous long-term records of observation, data from restricted areas and spatial patterns of LSWT variability.
The remote sensing research group of the University of Bern provided a LSWT data set based on Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) of lakes located in or near the European Alps (see Riffler et al. 2014 for more information). Based on that work, the goal of this project is to compile a LSWT data set from the in February 2013 launched satellite Landsat 8. Since Landsat 8 channels have a higher spatial resolution in the thermal infrared region than the AVHRR-sensors on the NOAA-satellites (100m vs 1.1km), the focus will be on the question, what differences between those two sensors can be observed. This project focuses on two or three Swiss lakes (Lake Geneva, Lake Constance) and the method used to derive the LSWT will be the Split Window Algorithm.
Master Student: Patrick Bur
Advisor/Supervisor: Gian Lieberherr, Michael Riffler, Stefan Wunderle
