Scientific satellites orbiting the planet capture valuable data about harmful algae blooms (HABs), but no tool currently exists for easily extracting insights from that data in real-time. CyanoWatch is a website that processes data feeds from the MODIS and VIIRS imaging sensors on the Terra/Aqua and SNPP missions, producing an averaged "HAB score" in the Lake Erie region as will as detecting and sending email or SMS alerts for anomalies. The cash award from this contest will assist in cloud hosting and data processing/storage costs for this project.
Proof of ConceptThe following visualizations were all generated by the author using real satellite data, as examples of the kind of data that will be available from CyanoWatch.
Using data from two satellites spanning February 27th through March 2nd 2017, we can plot the concentration of chlorophyll in the water of Lake Erie, which correlates directly to the concentration of harmful cyanobacteria.
We can then average the data from the two satellites, and overlay the image on a map of Lake Erie:
And generate a box-and-whisker plot of the range of chlorophyll levels detected by each satellite, as well as an average.
From this averaged data we can calculate a HAB "score" (the mean of all datapoints) of 3.15 mg/m⁻³ with a standard deviation of 0.995 mg/m⁻³.
CyanoWatch can also generate long-term chlorophyll level visualizations, which benefit from more datapoints (more satellite passes over the target location.)
CyanoWatch was conceived with the hope of making real-time, actionable, easy to understand information about harmful algae blooms available to civilians and civic leaders, to increase safety and quality-of-life in and around Lake Erie.
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