Spectral investigation of bioproduction in the northern Brandenburg Lake District, Germany

The German lake district 'Mecklenburger Kleinsceenplatte' between Berlin and Rostock shows a great variety of lakes having different tropical states. Remote sensing of water quality is investigated to help monitoring the lake waters and to guide the water sampling more carefully over space and time. Satellite data of the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite of summer 1996 are analyzed for a general overview of the variety of lake water within the test area. To get more quantitative information hyperspectral scanner data of the Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager are investigated. For these data a ratio of two bands pointing to chlorophyll absorption at 680 nm and a hull function over the absorption band have been applied. The results could be well related to the ground truth data taken by the Institute of Fresh Water Ecology in Brandenburg. They show differences in chlorophyll content even in December, a season of minimal bioproduction. Thus, further research in the summer season is promising to get good results in estimation of water quality parameters.