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This study demonstrates a number of methods for using field sampling and observed lake characteristics and patterns to improve techniques for development of algae remote sensing models and applications. As satellite and airborne sensors improve and their data are more readily available, applications of models to estimate water quality via remote sensing are becoming more practical for local water quality monitoring, particularly of surface algal conditions. Despite the increasing number of applications, there are significant concerns associated with remote sensing model development and application, several of which are addressed in this study. These concerns include: (1) selecting sensors which are suitable for the spatial and temporal variability in the water body; (2) determining appropriate uses of near-coincident data in empirical model calibration; and (3) recognizing potential limitations of remote sensing measurements which are biased toward surface and near-surface conditions. We address these issues in three lakes in the Great Salt Lake surface water system (namely the Great Salt Lake, Farmington Bay, and Utah Lake) through sampling at scales that are representative of commonly used sensors, repeated sampling, and sampling at both near-surface depths and throughout the water column. The variability across distances representative of the spatial resolutions of Landsat, SENTINEL-2 and MODIS sensors suggests that these sensors are appropriate for this lake system. We also use observed temporal variability in the system to evaluate sensors. These relationships proved to be complex, and observed temporal variability indicates the revisit time of Landsat may be problematic for detecting short events in some lakes, while it may be sufficient for other areas of the system with lower short-term variability. Temporal variability patterns in these lakes are also used to assess near-coincident data in empirical model development. Finally, relationships between the surface and water column conditions illustrate potential issues with near-surface remote sensing, particularly when there are events that cause mixing in the water column.

Combination of different satellite data will provide increased opportunities for more frequent cloud-free surface observations due to variable cloud cover at the different satellite overpass times and dates. Satellite data from the polar-orbiting Landsat-8 (launched 2013), Sentinel-2A (launched 2015) and Sentinel-2B (launched 2017) sensors offer 10 m to 30 m multi-spectral global coverage. Together, they advance the virtual constellation paradigm for mid-resolution land imaging. In this study, a global analysis of Landsat-8, Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B metadata obtained from the committee on Earth Observation Satellite (CEOS) Visualization Environment (COVE) tool for 2016 is presented. A global equal area projection grid defined every 0.05° is used considering each sensor and combined together. Histograms, maps and global summary statistics of the temporal revisit intervals (minimum, mean, and maximum) and the number of observations are reported. The temporal observation frequency improvements afforded by sensor combination are shown to be significant. In particular, considering Landsat-8, Sentinel-2A, and Sentinel-2B together will provide a global median average revisit interval of 2.9 days, and, over a year, a global median minimum revisit interval of 14 min (±1 min) and maximum revisit interval of 7.0 days.