CHLOROPHYLL DIFFERENCES IN MONO LAKE (CALIFORNIA) OBSERVABLE ON LANDSAT IMAGERY

In Mono Lake (California), a large saline lake, chlorophyll concentrations in the euphotic zone increased from 4-5 .mu.g l-1 between July and Oct. 1979. These seasonal changes in chlorophyll are detectable on imagery obtained with the multispectral scanner on Landsat. Computer-compatible tapes of Landsat images were normalized for solar zenith and corrected for atmospheric scatter and absorption to obtain Landsat band 4 emittance (W m-2 str-1) of 13.4 .+-. 0.5 when chlorophyll was 4 .mu.g l-1 and 4.6 .+-. 0.3 when chlorophyll was 45 .mu.g l-1. Lake wide, spatial heterogeneity of chlorophyll of 2 .mu.g l-1 in July and 8 .mu.g l-1 in October was not detectable on the Landsat imagery.