Overview

Title: The potential for use of satellite imaging systems to study climatological variability in North America. This study would assess whether appropriate data is available for conducting a long term (20-40 year) study using the thermal phenomenology in the Great Lakes as an indicator. The study will address availability of data (what sensors, what cloud free acquisitions...) appropriateness and utility of the data i.e. are there thermal bands, what is the geometric integrity, what are the costs, what phenomena should be studied, and what is required to characterize it (e.g. thermal bar formation date or duration, ice covers....). Example images will be acquired and processed to determine the level of effort and feasibility of such a study.