Application of multivariate model based on three simulated sensors for water quality variables estimation in Shitoukoumen Reservoir, Jilin Province, China

This study applied a multivariate model based on three simulated sensors to estimating water quality variables in Shitoukoumen Reservoir, Changchun City, Jilin Province, China, including concentration of total suspended matter, concentration of chlorophyll-a and non-pigment matter absorption. Two field campaigns for spectra measurements with a total of 40 samples were carried out on June 13 and September 23, 2008. The in-situ spectra were recalculated to the spectral bands and sensitivities of the instruments applied in this paper, i.e. Landsat TM, Alos and P6, by using the average method. And the recalculated spectra were used for estimating water quality variables by the single model and multivariate model. The results show that the multivariate model is superior to the single model as the multivariate model takes the combined effects of water components into consideration and can estimate water quality variables simultaneously. According to R2 and RMSE, Alos is superior to other sensors for water quality variables estimation although the precision of non-pigment matter absorption inversion performed the second.