LakeView: New Understanding of Lake Water Quality Through Integrated Earth Observing Systems

Principal Investigator: Paul Hanson, research professor for the Center for Limnology

Co-Principal Investigators:

Robert Holz, associate scientist in the Space Science and Engineering Center

Katherine McMahon, professor of bacteriology

Philip Townsend, professor of forest and wildlife ecology

Grace Wilkinson, assistant professor of limnology

LakeView is an integrated UW lake observatory whose mission is to prepare the scientific community for the next generation of space-based Earth observatories for water quality. NASA missions, scheduled to launch in the next 1-5 years, will generate a new kind of data (hyperspectral imagery) in support of sustainable use of Earth’s natural resources, including lakes.

Putting these data to work will require a new science that connects remotely sensed hyperspectral imagery with the biophysical mechanisms underlying water quality. LakeView will jumpstart this science by using airborne instrumentation to generate lake images equivalent to those from NASA satellites and combining those images with water quality data from UW’s lake observatories.

With support from the UW Space Science and Engineering Center, LakeView scientists will generate the unique and comprehensive data, workflows, and analyses needed to advance space-based water quality and position UW for leadership in the next generation of Earth observatories.