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Overview of the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) satellite monitoring and the future of expanding to >270,000 lakes.
Citation:
Schaeffer, B., L. Guenzel, AND W. Salls. Overview of the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) satellite monitoring and the future of expanding to >270,000 lakes. NALMS 2023: Great Lakes, Local Solutions, Erie, PA, October 22 - 26, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
The mission of the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) project uses satellite data to monitor and quantify cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms. Satellites allow for broad coverage of thousands of lakes and reservoirs on a daily basis. A summary of the environmental, economic, health, and social work will be presented.
Description:
Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms pose environmental, economic, and human health concerns across waters of the United States. However, monitoring changes in cyanobacteria at broad spatial and temporal scales remains difficult and many times with sporadic coverage. The Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) uses satellites to detect cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms supporting the environmental management and public use of U.S. lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries. The satellite algorithm used in CyAN has been validated with Water Quality Portal chlorophyll-a, state reported advisories, and state reported cell counts and toxins. CyAN now quantifies cyanobacterial metrics including the spatial extent, temporal frequency, magnitude, and lake occurrence across >2,000 of the largest lake systems in the contiguous United States. Data is publicly accessible in a variety of formats including the CyAN mobile and web apps, EPA’s How’s My Waterway, quantified metrics at EnviroAtlas and Report on Environment, and GeoTIFF from direct downloads. Case studies demonstrate CyAN satellite data helps save resources and protect human health. We will also describe the future of CyAN to detect chlorophyll-a, expanding coverage to >270,000 lakes, and the need for discrete field validation information.
