Feasibility of PlanetScope SuperDove constellation for water quality monitoring of inland and coastal waters
Planet’s SuperDove (SD) sensors offer eight bands (seven visible, one near infrared (NIR)) at 3 m spatial and near-daily temporal resolution. The yellow (610 nm) and red-edge (705 nm) bands are valuable for retrieving water quality (WQ) parameters, supporting applications such as harmful algal bloom...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-08-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Remote Sensing |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsen.2025.1624783/full |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850040145563090944 |
|---|---|
| author | Sakib Kabir Arun M. Saranathan Arun M. Saranathan Brian B. Barnes Akash Ashapure Akash Ashapure Ryan E. O’Shea Ryan E. O’Shea Victoria G. Stengel |
| author_facet | Sakib Kabir Arun M. Saranathan Arun M. Saranathan Brian B. Barnes Akash Ashapure Akash Ashapure Ryan E. O’Shea Ryan E. O’Shea Victoria G. Stengel |
| author_sort | Sakib Kabir |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Planet’s SuperDove (SD) sensors offer eight bands (seven visible, one near infrared (NIR)) at 3 m spatial and near-daily temporal resolution. The yellow (610 nm) and red-edge (705 nm) bands are valuable for retrieving water quality (WQ) parameters, supporting applications such as harmful algal bloom (HAB) and post-disaster monitoring. To enable scientific use, we assess signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), with the highest (248:1) at 443 nm and the lowest (8:1) at 865 nm, and other visible bands ranging from 26:1–98:1. We cross-calibrated SD with Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) using near-simultaneous observations over aquatic environments by comparing top-of-atmosphere (TOA; ρt ) reflectance across five shared visible bands (443, 490, 565, 665, and 705 nm), and derived calibration coefficients through linear regression. Before calibration, SD-MSI median ρt differences ranged from ∼0.7–13%, with highest differences at 705 nm. After applying the calibration, these differences reduced to −0.07% to −2.2%, including improvements at 665 nm (from ∼8% to −2.2%) and 705 nm (from ∼13% to −0.1%). Differences in atmospherically corrected remote sensing reflectance (Rrs ) also decreased from 16%–95% to 8%–72% post-calibration, with 565 nm showing the lowest (∼8%) and 705 nm the highest (∼72%) residual difference. Remaining Rrs discrepancies are attributed in part to SD’s inter-sensor differences and uncertainties in atmospheric correction. We qualitatively compared chlorophyll-a (Chla) and Secchi-disk depth (Zsd ) WQ products from SD and MSI, including a time-series analysis focused on the Dixie Fire and subsequent algal bloom in Lake Almanor (Sept–December 2021). The products captured expected trends, highlighting SD’s potential for WQ monitoring, while elevated uncertainties in ρt and Rrs suggest the need for improved calibration stability and atmospheric correction. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6e432e90134a40fa8bc71aaa5a6f086c |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2673-6187 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj-art-6e432e90134a40fa8bc71aaa5a6f086c2025-08-20T02:56:09ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Remote Sensing2673-61872025-08-01610.3389/frsen.2025.16247831624783Feasibility of PlanetScope SuperDove constellation for water quality monitoring of inland and coastal watersSakib Kabir0Arun M. Saranathan1Arun M. Saranathan2Brian B. Barnes3Akash Ashapure4Akash Ashapure5Ryan E. O’Shea6Ryan E. O’Shea7Victoria G. Stengel8Science Systems and Applications, Inc, Lanham, MD, United StatesScience Systems and Applications, Inc, Lanham, MD, United StatesNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United StatesUniversity of South Florida, StPetersburg, FL, United StatesScience Systems and Applications, Inc, Lanham, MD, United StatesNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United StatesScience Systems and Applications, Inc, Lanham, MD, United StatesNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United StatesU.S. Geological Survey Geology, Energy and Minerals Science Center, Reston, VA, United StatesPlanet’s SuperDove (SD) sensors offer eight bands (seven visible, one near infrared (NIR)) at 3 m spatial and near-daily temporal resolution. The yellow (610 nm) and red-edge (705 nm) bands are valuable for retrieving water quality (WQ) parameters, supporting applications such as harmful algal bloom (HAB) and post-disaster monitoring. To enable scientific use, we assess signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), with the highest (248:1) at 443 nm and the lowest (8:1) at 865 nm, and other visible bands ranging from 26:1–98:1. We cross-calibrated SD with Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) using near-simultaneous observations over aquatic environments by comparing top-of-atmosphere (TOA; ρt ) reflectance across five shared visible bands (443, 490, 565, 665, and 705 nm), and derived calibration coefficients through linear regression. Before calibration, SD-MSI median ρt differences ranged from ∼0.7–13%, with highest differences at 705 nm. After applying the calibration, these differences reduced to −0.07% to −2.2%, including improvements at 665 nm (from ∼8% to −2.2%) and 705 nm (from ∼13% to −0.1%). Differences in atmospherically corrected remote sensing reflectance (Rrs ) also decreased from 16%–95% to 8%–72% post-calibration, with 565 nm showing the lowest (∼8%) and 705 nm the highest (∼72%) residual difference. Remaining Rrs discrepancies are attributed in part to SD’s inter-sensor differences and uncertainties in atmospheric correction. We qualitatively compared chlorophyll-a (Chla) and Secchi-disk depth (Zsd ) WQ products from SD and MSI, including a time-series analysis focused on the Dixie Fire and subsequent algal bloom in Lake Almanor (Sept–December 2021). The products captured expected trends, highlighting SD’s potential for WQ monitoring, while elevated uncertainties in ρt and Rrs suggest the need for improved calibration stability and atmospheric correction.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsen.2025.1624783/fullsuperdoveradiometrysignal-to-noise ratiotop-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectanceremote sensing reflectanceinland/coastal waters |
| spellingShingle | Sakib Kabir Arun M. Saranathan Arun M. Saranathan Brian B. Barnes Akash Ashapure Akash Ashapure Ryan E. O’Shea Ryan E. O’Shea Victoria G. Stengel Feasibility of PlanetScope SuperDove constellation for water quality monitoring of inland and coastal waters Frontiers in Remote Sensing superdove radiometry signal-to-noise ratio top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance remote sensing reflectance inland/coastal waters |
| title | Feasibility of PlanetScope SuperDove constellation for water quality monitoring of inland and coastal waters |
| title_full | Feasibility of PlanetScope SuperDove constellation for water quality monitoring of inland and coastal waters |
| title_fullStr | Feasibility of PlanetScope SuperDove constellation for water quality monitoring of inland and coastal waters |
| title_full_unstemmed | Feasibility of PlanetScope SuperDove constellation for water quality monitoring of inland and coastal waters |
| title_short | Feasibility of PlanetScope SuperDove constellation for water quality monitoring of inland and coastal waters |
| title_sort | feasibility of planetscope superdove constellation for water quality monitoring of inland and coastal waters |
| topic | superdove radiometry signal-to-noise ratio top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance remote sensing reflectance inland/coastal waters |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsen.2025.1624783/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sakibkabir feasibilityofplanetscopesuperdoveconstellationforwaterqualitymonitoringofinlandandcoastalwaters AT arunmsaranathan feasibilityofplanetscopesuperdoveconstellationforwaterqualitymonitoringofinlandandcoastalwaters AT arunmsaranathan feasibilityofplanetscopesuperdoveconstellationforwaterqualitymonitoringofinlandandcoastalwaters AT brianbbarnes feasibilityofplanetscopesuperdoveconstellationforwaterqualitymonitoringofinlandandcoastalwaters AT akashashapure feasibilityofplanetscopesuperdoveconstellationforwaterqualitymonitoringofinlandandcoastalwaters AT akashashapure feasibilityofplanetscopesuperdoveconstellationforwaterqualitymonitoringofinlandandcoastalwaters AT ryaneoshea feasibilityofplanetscopesuperdoveconstellationforwaterqualitymonitoringofinlandandcoastalwaters AT ryaneoshea feasibilityofplanetscopesuperdoveconstellationforwaterqualitymonitoringofinlandandcoastalwaters AT victoriagstengel feasibilityofplanetscopesuperdoveconstellationforwaterqualitymonitoringofinlandandcoastalwaters |