EPA Research Partner Support Story: Satellite derived measures of cyanobacteria
Partners: State environmental agencies or health departments
Challenge: Support the environmental management and public use of U.S. lakes and reservoirs by providing a capability of detecting and quantifying cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms using satellite data records
Resource: Satellite-derived measures of cyanobacteria, software and training in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Project Period: Sentinel-3 satellite 2015 – 2023, Sentinel-2 satellite 2024+
Cyanobacteria blooms are an environmental and human health problem across the U.S. They are capable of producing toxins, odors, and surface scum that threaten the health of humans and animals, the quality of drinking water supplies, and the ecosystems in which they develop. Improving the detection process would help state environmental and health agencies better determine whether to post public advisories to protect aquatic and human health.
“The images we've been receiving through the CyAN project have been tremendously helpful to the Utah DEQ Division of Water Quality (DWQ), providing the foundation for a wide range of useful outputs. It allows DWQ to better target field sampling and more efficiently use our limited resources to protect public health. Finally, images are easily shared with response agencies as a useful visual communication aid.” – Utah Department of Environmental Quality, DWQ Standards & Technical Services Section Manager Benjamin Holcomb
The Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) project is a multi-agency effort among EPA, NASA, NOAA, and USGS to develop an indicator system using historical and current satellite data to quantify the temporal frequency, spatial extent, and magnitude of blooms in U.S. lakes. CyAN is providing daily and weekly cyanobacteria monitoring data to state environmental and health departments from the European Space Agency Sentinel-3 satellite, training opportunities, and software applications. As part of the CyAN project, EPA developed the CyAN app and CyANWeb, easy-to-use and customizable applications that provide access to algal bloom satellite data for over 2,000 of the largest lakes and reservoirs across the United States. Annual metrics that quantify the spatial extent, temporal frequency and occurrence as well as the original satellite data are publicly available through EnviroAtlas, Report on the Environment, and NASA’s Ocean Color Web. These interfaces help local, state, and tribal water quality managers make faster and better-informed management decisions related to cyanobacterial blooms. During the CyAN app and webapp development, many partner states listed above participated in beta testing.
The original project concludes in 2023 and will transition in 2024 toward applying higher resolution Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Imager that can provide measures of chlorophyll in more than 270,000 lakes and all estuaries, adding US Army Corps of Engineers as a fifth federal partner. While the Sentinel-3 portion of the project will conclude, the data will continue to be made publicly available and reprocessed annually. CyAN will continue to engage states for feedback and testing.