USE OF AIRBORNE MULTISPECTRAL VIDEO DATA FOR WATER-QUALITY EVALUATION IN SANDY-HOOK, NEW-JERSEY

A local mission of short duration was carried out to investigate the relationship between signals acquired by an airborne multispectral camera (MSC-02) developed by XYbion Corporation and in situ water sampling. The MSC-02 was used to produce video images in six spectral bands in the reflective and near-infrared region of the spectrum from which all below-surface hydrological signals originate. Images of halon-coated panels were obtained in all bands to calculate relative radiometric calibration functions. These functions were applied to corresponding spectral images to calculate relative radiances of both panel and estuarine water targets. These values were then input to regression equations to establish a correlation between water constituents (organic/inorganic) and MSC-02 signals indicating the degree of eutrophication in the estuary. It is hypothesized that if reliable relationships between MSC-02 data with fine spatial resolution and selected water quality parameters are obtained, then it would be possible to calibrate the concurrently acquired Landsat 5 thematic mapper (TM) data with coarser spatial resolution for monitoring of estuarine water quality.