Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Inland Waters

Keywords

chromaticity, Minnesota, satellite remote sensing, Sentinel Lakes, water color, water quality

Abstract

Traditional water quality monitoring methods often face limitations of equipment costs and labor demands, requiring innovative approaches to effectively assess the ecological health of inland lakes across vast areas. This research explores the application of free, publicly available water color chromaticity analysis for midcontinent lakes in Minnesota, USA. We examined water color variations in Minnesota’s Sentinel Lakes using Landsat 8 OLI data to analyze surface reflectance samples collected from the deepest area within each lake during the late summer, corresponding to peak annual insolation and trophic activity. The median dominant visible wavelength was used to characterize water color. Results indicate a prevalence of green-yellow hues (∼575 nm), indicating the presence of photosynthetic activity and suspended solids. Regional variations were also observed across Minnesota. Red colors were common in the northeast and south, while blues were scarce. Statistical analysis revealed color was not unique to any ecoregions; however, sentinel lakes within an ecoregion were proven to have the same color. In the Canadian Shield ecoregion, annual water color variations were attributed to forested catchments and undisturbed hydrology. Using the median dominant visible wavelength (mDVW) to observe decadal patterns of water color can serve as a baseline for identifying anomalies and guide resourceful investigations.

Funding Source

This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Taylor & Francis.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.1080/20442041.2025.2509528

Comments

First published in Inland Waters (2026): https://doi.org/10.1080/20442041.2025.2509528. Supplemental data available on the publisher's site.

Download

Share

COinS