REEF50 Relative extent of exceedance frequency greater than 0.50, i.e. when the median values are used for the assessment of the Guidelines.t REEG Relative extent of exceedance of the Guidelines, i.e. when the mean values are used for the assessment of the Guidelines. RT Radiative transfer SA Semi analytic SeaDAS SeaWiFS Data Analysis System SeaWiFS Sea-viewing Wide Sensor (Launched in 1997) a nominal overpass time of ca 12:00 AM TSS Total Suspended Solids WQIP Water Quality Improvement Plan METHODS Given the size and variability of conditions within the GBR catchments, monitoring the water quality in the GBR lagoon waters is challenging. The MMP water quality monitoring uses three complementary approaches to collect data at various spatial (site, location, region, and whole GBR lagoon) and temporal (snapshot, daily, 10-minutely) scales: traditional direct water sampling from research vessels, data loggers at a small number of selected inshore reef locations and satellite in situ based remote sensing. While data loggers provide detailed information on the local variability in water quality parameters, remote sensing observations provide extensive spatial coverage at 1 km resolution. Remote sensing is a suitable and cost-effective technique for monitoring of coastal water quality, because it provides synoptic views of the spatial distribution of CHL, CDOM and TSS concentrations, and water clarity of near-surface water. The data generated from regular daily satellite acquisition of the GBR region should help to identify patterns of spatial variation over scales of hundreds of meters to hundreds of kilometres and temporal scales of days to years. Management-relevant products from remote sensing data that provide information beyond that of a simple concentrations map are needed by management agencies to make more informed decisions. Regionally retrieval of water quality parameters from satellite imagery Based on studies conducted in the Fitzroy River estuary (Brando et al. 2006; Oubelkheir et al. 2006) and the Mossman Daintree coastal waters (Steven et al. 2007), it has been demonstrated that the NASA standard global Ocean Colour algorithms are inaccurate in nearshore GBR waters (Qin et al. 2007). Subsequently there has been considerable effort in developing regionally appropriate algorithms for these optically complex GBR waters. Studies commissioned by GBRMPA on water quality monitoring (Schaffelke et al. 2006) and optical characterisation of coastal waters et al. 2009) have also been undertaken and contribute to the development of regionally
REEF50 Relative extent of exceedance frequency greater than 0.50, i.e. when the median values are used for the assessment of the Guidelines.t REEG Relative extent of exceedance of the Guidelines, i.e. when the mean values are used for the assessment of the Guidelines. RT Radiative transfer SA Semi analytic SeaDAS SeaWiFS Data Analysis System SeaWiFS Sea-viewing Wide Sensor (Launched in 1997) a nominal overpass time of ca 12:00 AM TSS Total Suspended Solids WQIP Water Quality Improvement Plan METHODS Given the size and variability of conditions within the GBR catchments, monitoring the water quality in the GBR lagoon waters is challenging. The MMP water quality monitoring uses three complementary approaches to collect data at various spatial (site, location, region, and whole GBR lagoon) and temporal (snapshot, daily, 10-minutely) scales: traditional direct water sampling from research vessels, in situ data loggers at a small number of selected inshore reef locations and satellite based remote sensing. While data loggers provide detailed information on the local variability in water quality parameters, remote sensing observations provide extensive spatial coverage at 1 km resolution. Remote sensing is a suitable and cost-effective technique for monitoring of coastal water quality, because it provides synoptic views of the spatial distribution of CHL, CDOM and TSS concentrations, and water clarity of near-surface water. The data generated from regular daily satellite acquisition of the GBR region should help to identify patterns of spatial variation over scales of hundreds of meters to hundreds of kilometres and temporal scales of days to years. Management-relevant products from remote sensing data that provide information beyond that of a simple concentrations map are needed by management agencies to make more informed decisions. Regionally retrieval of water quality parameters from satellite imagery Based on studies conducted in the Fitzroy River estuary (Brando et al. 2006; Oubelkheir et al. 2006) and the Mossman Daintree coastal waters (Steven et al. 2007), it has been demonstrated that the NASA standard global Ocean Colour algorithms are inaccurate in nearshore GBR waters (Qin et al. 2007). Subsequently there has been considerable effort in developing regionally appropriate algorithms for these optically complex GBR waters. Studies commissioned by GBRMPA on water quality monitoring (Schaffelke et al. 2006) and optical characterisation of coastal waters et al. 2009) have also been undertaken and contribute to the development of regionally
MMP_Remotely_Sensed_Water_Quality_Monitoring_Report_2010_11.docx