POSTER SESSION 4
10:30–12:30, Thursday, September 17
Poster Session | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Schedule at a Glance
ABSTRACT 1328 | POSTER 244
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNDERWAY FLOW-THROUGH OPTICAL SYSTEM (UFO) AND PIGMENT ANALYSIS USING HPLC DATA ACROSS THE LAURENTIAN GREAT LAKES
The Laurentian Great Lakes encompass a diverse and dynamic aquatic environment that exhibits a wide range of water optical properties. Historically, direct measurements of these optical properties have been conducted at discrete stations across the lakes. While informative, these discrete measurements leave significant portions of the lakes unsurveyed, resulting in gaps within validation datasets. To address this issue, we implemented an Underway Flow-Through Optical System (UFO), including continuous measurements from an ACS, Hyper-bb, and SUVF. This system enables continuous and high-resolution optical measurements while the vessel is underway. This work was conducted aboard the USEPA R/V Lake Guardian during the 2024-2026 field campaigns. The combination of these datasets has substantially improved our ability to sample the lake surface at a high spatial resolution, filling critical data gaps required for satellite remote sensing validation. Preliminary results reveal both small-to-large scale trends in water optical properties, highlighting variability between different lakes as well as within distinct regions of individual lakes. Additionally, High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) samples were collected at discrete overlapping stations with our flow-through system. Initial results show that there are strong relationships between some pigments derived from HPLC and our suite of optical measurements. These findings underscore the importance of high-resolution, underway optical measurements in capturing the complexity of the Great Lakes and improving our understanding of the factors driving optical variability. This work also represents a significant step forward in the validation of satellite remote sensing products as a whole.
Ray Watkins, Michigan Tech Research Institute, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1019-872X
Karl Bosse, Michigan Tech Research Institute, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3080-1998
Michael Sayers, Michigan Tech Research Institute, [email protected]
Nils Haëntjens, University of Maine, School of Marine Sciences, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7155-2721
Emmanuel Boss, University of Maine, School of Marine Sciences, [email protected]
Robert Shuchman, Michigan Tech Research Institute, [email protected]
Poster Session | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Schedule at a Glance
