Analysis of cloud condition on Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat-8 OLI images of a public supply lake in Belém-Pará-Brazil

Abstract

The eutrophication process leads to reduced water quality and economic losses worldwide. Furthermore, it is possible to apply remote sensing techniques for monitoring of aquatic environments. In this paper, we analysed the combined use of Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager data to monitor a eutrophic aquatic environment under adverse cloudy conditions, from July 2016 to July 2018. Data pre-selection was performed, and then the images were acquired for further investigation. After that, we created a key to the interpretation of cloud conditions for the study area and grouped each of 125 scenes in a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The PCA grouped months with similarities in cloud conditions, highlighting their patterns in terms of the rainy and dry seasons for the study area. Another interesting result was that, even under the inherent adverse cloud regime of the Amazon, the combined use of both free satellite imagery data could be useful for further analyses, such as measuring of chlorophyll a, coloured dissolved organic matters, total suspended solids and turbidity. However, we highlight that, firstly, studies must be made to validate the data in situ, so that monitoring programs can be built through remote sensing applications.