Within ESA’s Sentinel Users Preparation (SUP) initiative, this project aims to develop and validate concepts for the integrated use of data from two new missions, CHIME and LSTM. The combination of hyperspectral and thermal imagery will address four use cases, namely classification and quantification of algae and cyanobacteria, mapping of seagrass distribution and density, classification of benthic composition and monitoring of essential river ecological parameters. The DLR-IMF Team will engage in benthic classification, performing radiative transfer simulations of CHIME spectra of inland and shallow coastal waters. Besides covering globally representative benthic types, wide concentration ranges of water constituents and relevant water depths, simulations will also include sensor noise, in order to develop a CHIME-optimized inversion algorithm for improved benthic classification.
AQUA SUP will develop products for different applications in close collaboration with end-users in Germany and Italy.
DLR will focus on two study sites and their corresponding stakeholders: Lake Garda (Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, ARPA) and Lake Constance (Baden-Württemberg State Institute for the Environment, Survey and Nature Conservation, LUBW).
