CSIRO’s AquaWatch Australia program is building an innovative pipeline for developing water quality science at a continental scale utilizing earth observations. Satellite imagery presents a number of unique challenges when it comes to using this data to generate water quality science products.
AquaWatch Australia has been developing an analysis ready data pipeline for processing satellite imagery to be used for water quality analysis. Challenges that prevent water quality analysis in remote sensing can range from reflections, shadows, clouds and more.
To support the development of AquaWatch Australia’s product suite, the Retrieval Ready Pixel algorithm can provide only the pixels in a waterbody that are valuable for water quality analysis. This ARD process has enabled the continued development of AquaWatch Australia’s earth observation water quality data suite.
When tackling a continental or global problem in earth observation, the amount of data being processed is beyond staggering. AquaWatch Australia has had to develop unique ways of processing and caching this data to improve the efficiency of these product suites. The ARD pipeline is an integral one upon which multiple other water quality analysis can then be completed.