MONOCLE field campaign in Scotland
International research team gathers in Loch Leven for first field campaign
The end of August, the international research team of the MONOCLE project gathered around Loch Leven in Kinross, Scotland for their first field campaign.
MONOCLE (Multiscale Observation Networks for Optical Monitoring of Coastal waters, Lakes and Estuaries), led by Plymouth Marine Laboratory, is developing water quality observation solutions using a combination of satellites, buoys, ships, drones and hand-held devices. Colleagues Liesbeth De Keukelaere and Klaas Pauly, R&D experts in drone image processing, joined the team to further investigate drone technology for water quality monitoring.
The drone flights were performed by Sitemark, Skeye and the Scottisch Survey Solutions.
- Sitemark operated a standard DJI Phantom 4 pro device
- Skeye flew with an Altura Zenith ATX8 with adapted payload, including multispectral camera and improved georeferencing
- Scottisch Survey Solutions was availbale with an off-the-self Microdrones system
The low-cost RGB cameras and the more sophisticated multispectral sensor are now compared with the collected field data for optical water properties like TSM (Total Suspended Matter) and Chlorophyll-a.
This field campaign was the first in a series of validation campaigns to create sustainable optical in situ observation solutions, ranging from highly accurate automated systems to low-cost sensors solutions that can be built and operated by the public.
Discover more about MONOCLE and the first field campaign in Loch Leven the blog post 'A Monocle view of water quality monitoring'.