Telespectrometrical estimation of water transparency, chlorophyll-a and total phosphorus concentration of Lake Peipsi

The possibilities of solving the passive optical remote sensing inverse problem in the case of a turbid, multi-componental aquatic environment are considered using the data on Lake Peipsi. A well known method based on the correlative relations between the characteristics of the remotely-sensed radiance spectra and other characteristics of the water body is used. Telespectrometrical measurements above Lake Peipsi as well as the simultaneous underwater measurements were carried out during two helicopter and two ship expeditions. It was shown that using the remote sensing data obtained by means of a single measurement series it is possible to describe rather well the actual spatial distribution of the water mass characteristics on Lake Peipsi, but only for the expedition under consideration. However, not a single remote sensing characteristic of the twelve considered by us can give well matching isolines if we use the regression formulae determined on the basis of the whole data set (four expeditions together). Presumably universal algorithms describing the connections between the characteristics of the optical remote sensing spectra and the properties of the water mass in different water bodies and different weather conditions do not exist.