USU Researchers Using Drone Sensing to Identify Harmful Algal Blooms

Toxic algal blooms on Utah Lake occur when large amounts of cyanobacteria and algae reproduce and spread along the surface, which can be bad news for the local people and wildlife.

And up until now, studying them usually meant sending people out into the water to collect samples and test them in the lab.

But USU researchers are now using a hyperspectral camera attached to a drone to fly over the algal blooms and photograph the way the light is reflected off the surface.

They then match the images to the water samples to understand how algal blooms show up in hyperspectral imagery.

The technology isn't there yet but researchers are hoping that eventually hyperspectral satellites can capture images of lakes to determine algal bloom levels instead of relying on humans venturing out into the water.