This week's reading for every source lake, including the ones off your boat route.
Weekly chlorophyll-a, turbidity and clarity readings from a wide-swath satellite pass, one numbered memo per water body.
How a lake gets read today
You run source water monitoring for a utility that draws from several lakes. Each one has a station near the intake. On a sampling run, someone takes the boat out, pulls the grab sample, lowers the Secchi disk and brings the bottles back for the lab. Chlorophyll-a and turbidity come back from the lab keyed by station and date, and go into the sheet.
That works for the lakes on the route. The rest get a visit when somebody has a free morning, or when a customer rings about taste and odor. In bloom season the water changes faster than the schedule does, and a lake nobody has touched in a while can be well into a bloom before anyone looks. You can't put a boat on every lake every week.
So the picture of the region is patchy. You know a few lakes well and the rest by reputation. When the manager asks which lakes are heading toward poorer clarity this month, the honest answer is a list of the ones you happened to sample.
A weekly satellite read doesn't replace the boat or the lab. It puts a reading on every lake in between, so the next sampling run goes where the trend points.
What arrives each week
The first delivery sets up the region. After that you get a set each week there is a usable pass.
2.1 Weekly reading per lake
Memo, one per water body
A numbered reading card for each lake in your region: chlorophyll-a, turbidity and a clarity reading, each a satellite-derived estimate stamped with the date of the pass it comes from. It lands in your weekly source water review, beside the lab results.
2.2 Trend line per water body
Chart + CSV
Each lake's readings plotted over the season, with the same numbers in a CSV you can open next to your station data. Weeks without a usable pass stay as gaps.
2.3 Regional summary
One-page memo
The lakes drifting toward poorer clarity, flagged and ranked, so the next sampling run has an order. You can carry it into your source water monitoring report.
How it works
3.1 Send the lake list
Give us your region as a boundary file, or list the source lakes you care about. Tell us which lakes have an intake, so the memos mark them.
3.2 Imagery check
Before the first delivery, we check which lakes have enough open water to retrieve at this pixel size, and tell you which ones don't.
3.3 Weekly retrieval
Each week we source a wide-swath multispectral pass over the region. Band-ratio models turn the reflectance into chlorophyll-a, turbidity and clarity readings, lake by lake.
3.4 Memos land
You get the numbered reading cards and the regional summary. A project team looks over each set before it goes out.
Before the next sampling run
Read the regional summary when you plan the week. A lake ranked toward poorer clarity moves up the boat schedule, and a lake that has held steady can wait. The lab result then confirms or corrects what the satellite suggested, and your own station data stays the record.
Limits
These are the ways a satellite reading can mislead you. Each memo repeats the ones that apply to its lake.
Not a lab result
The readings are satellite-derived estimates from band-ratio models. They don't replace a certified lab measurement, and the memos never present them as one.
10–30 m is the floor
A lake needs open water several pixels in from the shore before it retrieves. Small ponds and narrow bays fall below that scale, and the imagery check lists which of yours do. Pixels at the shoreline mix land and water, and they read badly.
Weekly is a target
A week with no cloud-free pass is skipped. Cloud and haze mean some weeks have no reading for some or all lakes. Those weeks show as gaps and are never filled in.
Surface only
The retrieval sees the top of the water column. A bloom sitting deep, or an intake drawing from depth, isn't seen directly.
Screening, not compliance
Use it to screen and to follow trends beside your certified sampling program. It doesn't stand in for the sampling your permit requires.
Who it's for
- Water quality analysts at drinking-water utilities that draw from lakes or reservoirs and can't sample every one each week.
- Source water protection teams deciding where the next boat goes.
Who it's not for
- Teams that need a certified measurement for regulatory compliance. That is the lab's job.
- Real-time alarms at an intake. A weekly satellite read is far too slow for that.
- Very small ponds or narrow bays, which sit below the pixel size.
Questions from the lab and the front office
Is this equivalent to a lab sample?
No. It is a satellite-derived estimate. Keep taking your grab samples. The readings tell you which lakes to sample first.
Which lakes can it cover?
Lakes with enough open water to cover several pixels at 10–30 m. We check your list before the first delivery and tell you which ones fall short.
How current is it?
Weekly is the target. It isn't real-time, and a week without a cloud-free pass is skipped.
How do we check it against our own lab data?
Every reading carries its pass date, so you can set it beside a grab sample taken the same week at the same lake. Tell us where your stations are and we can show the two together in the trend chart.
Can we use it in regulatory reporting?
On its own, no. Treat it as a screening and trend record next to your certified sampling. How you cite it in a report is between you and your regulator.
Can it plug into the systems we already run?
The trend data comes as CSV and the layers open in QGIS or ArcGIS, so it can sit next to your station data. Anything beyond files is scoped with your team.
Who owns the readings you deliver?
Use and ownership terms for the delivered readings are written into the contract before work starts. The public satellite archives keep their own licences.
How is it priced?
Each region is scoped and quoted on its own, from the number of lakes and how long you want weekly delivery. You get a written scope you can take through procurement.
Send us the lake list and we'll tell you which ones retrieve.
Or ask about your region .
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