CICEET Progress Report for the period 9/15/04 Through 3/15/05
Project Title: Assessing Relative Eutrophication of Coastal Embayments with Calibrated Aerial Video Imagery
Principal Investigator(s): Richard Crawford, Michael Purcell, Thomas A. Stone
Project Start Date: 1 August 1998
Project Objectives for This Reporting Period
Objectives
To overcome difficulties building the data collection module and completing its operating software so that a comprehensive and error-free data set can be collected in the field.
Tasks to meet objectives
1. Engineers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will replace the malfunctioning software that controls data collection and data storage on MUSIC with a new, better functioning and reliable version.
2. Engineers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will test MUSIC’s electrical systems to ensure they are operating correctly.
3. Crawford and Stone will conduct additional field-testing with MUSIC to verify the success of the software upgrade and be sure that MUSIC is ready for data collection in the spring of 2004.
Progress on Tasks
1. Engineers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) replaced the malfunctioning software that controls data collection and data storage on MUSIC with a better functioning and more reliable version.
2. The engineers at WHOI provided testing of new software.
3. Crawford tested MUSIC’s electrical systems and data collection systems to ensure they were operating correctly.
4. We conducted field tests with MUSIC to verify the success of the software upgrade and to make MUSIC ready for data collection in late August 2004. Because item 1 was not delivered on schedule, this activity was postponed from its originally scheduled period (spring 2004) to summer 2004.
5. We did testing of the software and hardware in and out of the water in May and July 2004.
6. We did a full field effort on September 1, 2004, including hyperspectral imagery/data collection with aircraft sensors.
Difficulties
The original schedule, to do field work in Waquoit Bay during the spring and early summer of 2004, was not met. The equipment was not ready. Our first operational field effort with the new software was on Sept 1 2004. Although a significant amount of good data was collected via MUSIC as well as from Flight Landata aircraft, the amount of chlorophyll in the estuary was very low due to the lateness of the year. Low chlorophyll significantly reduces the signal to noise ratio and will make the correlation with the aircraft data much more difficult.
Project Objectives for Next Reporting Period
Objectives
1. Analyze data collected on 1 September 2004.
2. Integrate into the analysis supporting data segments obtained during previous field tests, as appropriate.
3. Write and submit the final report.
Tasks to Meet Objectives
1. Analyze data collected during the 1 September 2004 fieldwork.
2. Evaluate a preliminary model testing the concept of our effort to develop an environmental assessment tool.
3. Integrate data (edited from partial data sets), obtained during previous, partially successful fieldwork, with data from the successful run on 1 September 2004, to evaluate seasonal changes in the study area, as possible.
4. Complete and submit the final report.
Work Plan for Next Reporting Period
1. We will begin individual analysis of data in our respective areas of responsibility:
Stone spectral image analysis and chlorophyll modelling.
Crawford groundtruthing analysis and data integration.
2. We will meet several times to integrate our analyses and develop a preliminary model.
3. We will compile our results and complete the final report.
Anticipated Success in Meeting Project Objectives
Although we finally have an operational field data collection system, its delayed delivery has caused us to miss our planned data collection period, a window of time encompassing the spring plankton bloom in Waquoit Bay. This resulted in our collecting data after the bloom had ended and when chlorophyll concentrations were very minimal, except for one area near a marina (which we sampled). However, due to the number of light-colored boats in the vicinity of the marina, extracting useful aircraft-sensor multispectral data for this area will be extremely challenging. Chlorophyll concentrations elsewhere in the study area were very low much lower than they had been during earlier field tests. The lack of chlorophyll is likely to interfere with achieving the desired level of success.
Overall Project Timeline Update
Delays by engineers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in delivering an operating data collection system have continued to set the project further behind schedule. The deadline for delivery of a functioning system for use in this reporting period was November 2003. Actual delivery was in June 2004. Testing and final correction of remaining minor problems occurred in summer 2004. The original anticipated date of this delivery—in the original project timeline—was May 2001.
Preliminary Data
During the Sept. 1, 2004. Field effort, we collected 12 MB of multispectral data with MUSIC, as ASCII text files. These have all been converted to spreadsheet files. The upwelling and downwelling multispectral data are from spectral bands at 412 nm, 443 nm, 491 nm, 511 nm, 520 nm, 555 nm, and 670 nm.
With colleagues from Flight Landata operating aircraft-mounted equipment, we collected about 2 GB of hyperspectral data and 2 GB of multispectral data. The spectral range of the hyperspectral imagery data is from 431.1 nm to 881.6 nm linearly distributed along 240 bands. The multispectral data are from spectral bands at 450nm, 550nm, 650nm and 800nm respectively, using 10nm bandwidth interference filters.
We also collected 23 MB of environmental data for groundtruthing data collected with MUSIC and the aircraft. These data have been converted to various formats for a variety of data analyses.
Dissemination
None to date.
Expenditures
Expenditures have remained within expectations for the project.