Water Quality App Getting its Flow
Former Copernicus Masters competition winner EOMAP has launched a harmonised, high-resolution inland water quality monitoring service based on satellite data. The free web application, called eoApp, enables anyone with a web browser to view various water quality parameters in a selection of sites across the globe.
The eoApp’s data products include maps of turbidity – cloudiness caused by particles in the water – and chlorophyll content. These are important parameters for monitoring sediment plumes from dredging and dumping activities, as well as land run-off.
New Data Added
New data on these parameters will be provided by the Sentinel-2 mission, which carries an innovative wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager that can monitor inland water bodies and the coastal environment, among other applications. The first in the two-satellite mission, Sentinel-2A, is set for launch on 23 June 2015. The addition of Sentinel-2 data to the eoApp service will expand its coverage of inland and coastal waters.
Chlorophyll
EOMAP has a long history with ESA. The development of the German company was initially supported by ESA’s Business Incubation Centre in Bavaria, one of the nine centres set up by the Agency to support start-up companies in developing new business in Europe drawing on space technology and satellite services.
In 2011 the company won the ESA App Challenge of the Copernicus Masters competition for its idea for AquaMap – a near-realtime water quality service on mobile phones. Two years later, EOMAP’s satellite service for mapping global seafloor topography won the competition’s T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge.
The Copernicus Masters competition seeks applications for business and society based on Earth observation data, while fostering creative product development and entrepreneurship in Europe.
Image: Turbidity at the mouth of the Elbe. Image courtesy: EOMAP.
