Comparison of Lake Optical Water Types Derived from Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3

Inland waters play a critical role in our drinking water supply. Additionally, they are important providers of food and recreation possibilities. Inland waters are known to be optically complex and more diverse than marine or ocean waters. The optical properties of natural waters are influenced by three different and independent sources: phytoplankton, suspended matter, and colored dissolved organic matter. Thus, the remote sensing of these waters is more challenging. Different types of waters need different approaches to obtain correct water quality products; therefore, the first step in remote sensing of lakes should be the classification of the water types. The classification of optical water types (OWTs) is based on the differences in the reflectance spectra of the lake water. This classification groups lake and coastal waters into five optical classes: Clear, Moderate, Turbid, Very Turbid, and Brown. We studied the OWTs in three different Latvian lakes: Burtnieks, Lubans, and Razna, and in a large Estonian lake, Lake Vortsjarv. The primary goal of this study was a comparison of two different Copernicus optical instrument data for optical classification in lakes: Ocean and Land Color Instrument (OLCI) on Sentinel-3 and Multispectral Instrument (MSI) on Sentinel-2. We found that both satellite OWT classifications in lakes were comparable (R2 = 0.74). We were also able to study the spatial and temporal changes in the OWTs of the study lakes during 2017. The comparison between two satellites was carried out to understand if the classification of the OWTs with both satellites is compatible. Our results could give us not only a better overview of the changes in the lake water by studying the temporal and spatial variability of the OWTs, but also possibly better retrieval of Level 2 satellite products when using OWT guided approach.