Chlorophyll differences in Mono Lake (California) observable on Landsat imagery

In Mono Lake (California), a large saline lake, chlorophyll concentrations in the euphotic zone increased from 4 to 45 µg l^–1 between July and October 1979. These seasonal changes in chlorophyll are detectable on imagery obtained with the multispectral scanner on Landsat. Computer-compatible tapes of Landsat images were normalized for solar zenith and corrected for atmospheric scatter and absorption to obtain Landsat band 4 emittances (W m^–2 str^–1) of 13.4 ± 0.5 when chlorophyll was 4 µg l^–1 and 4.6 ± 0.3 when chlorophyll was 45 µg l^–1. Lake wide, spatial heterogeneity of chlorophyll of 2 µg l^–1 in July and 8 µg l^–1 in October was not detectable on the Landsat imagery.