In situ measurements of Rhodamine WT dye concentration and turbidity made along transects by a moving boat during a tracer experiment on the Missouri River near Columbia, MO, on May 5, 2021

Dates

Acquisition: 2020-05-05
Publication Date: 2022-02-22

Citation

Legleiter, C.J., Sansom, B.J., and Jacobson, R.B., 2022, Remotely sensed data and field measurements for mapping visible dye concentrations during a tracer experiment on the Missouri River near Columbia, MO, May 5, 2021: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9JDISO3.

Summary

This child data release includes fluorometer measurements of Rhodamine WT dye concentration and turbidity acquired during a tracer experiment performed on the Missouri River near Columbia, Missouri, on May 5, 2021. One of the primary goals of this tracer experiment was to assess the feasibility of inferring concentrations of a visible dye (Rhodamine WT) from various types of remotely sensed data in a large, highly turbid natural river channel. Previous research on remote sensing of tracer dye concentrations has focused on clear-flowing streams, but the Missouri River is much more turbid. As a result, the effect of the dye on the reflectance of the water could be obscured by the effects of suspended sediment on reflectance. This experiment [...]

Summary

This child data release includes fluorometer measurements of Rhodamine WT dye concentration and turbidity acquired during a tracer experiment performed on the Missouri River near Columbia, Missouri, on May 5, 2021. One of the primary goals of this tracer experiment was to assess the feasibility of inferring concentrations of a visible dye (Rhodamine WT) from various types of remotely sensed data in a large, highly turbid natural river channel. Previous research on remote sensing of tracer dye concentrations has focused on clear-flowing streams, but the Missouri River is much more turbid. As a result, the effect of the dye on the reflectance of the water could be obscured by the effects of suspended sediment on reflectance. This experiment thus provided an initial test of the potential to map dye concentrations from remotely sensed data in more turbid rivers like the Missouri.

The experiment involved introducing a pulse of Rhodamine WT dye into the channel at an upstream transect and then observing the dispersion of the dye along the river using various in-situ and remote sensing instruments. In-situ measurements of Rhodamine WT concentration were used to quantify the passage of the dye over the course of the experiment as a moving boat made multiple passes of a cross-stream transect. The fluorometer was set with a logging interval of 1 second and was deployed on the boat from which field spectra were acquired during several transects back and forth across the channel 2.5 km downstream the dye release transect. Rhodamine WT measurements from this fluorometer were used to relate spectral reflectance to RWT concentration. The position of this fluorometer was also established using a Trimble R2 RTK GNSS receiver logging at 5 Hz mounted 2.47 m directly starboard of the fluorometer. The position of the third time stamp of every second was extracted from the GPS time string and paired with the data logged by the fluorometer using the time stamps from the fluorometer.

All fluorometers used in the study were calibrated prior to deployment using a two-point (Rhodamine WT: 0 and 10 ppb; turbidity: 0 and 250 NTU) calibration procedure established by Turner. The calibration of each fluorometer was subsequently tested using a two-point test (Rhodamine WT: 1 and 30 ppb; turbidity: 100 and 400 NTU). To create calibration and test solutions for fluorescence, manufacturer-recommended standards were diluted in distilled water. If the test measurements deviated more than five percent from the test solution, the instrument was recalibrated and retested.

All fluorometers were synchronized to allow the in-situ and remotely sensed data sets to be linked via time stamps. A custom python script was used to post-process the Rhodamine WT data. Post-processing consisted of removing the background fluorescence, despiking the data, and applying a five-point moving average.

This data release provides both the Rhodamine WT concentration and turbidity measurements for each fluorometer, as well as locations and time stamps. The fluorometer data from throughout the experiment are compiled in MissouriDyeFluorometers_boat.csv. The fluorometer data measured on the boat are organized by transect number and also include the UTC time of the measurement, hours post injection, and easting and northing spatial coordinates (UTM Zone 15S, NAD83). The remaining columns contain the raw Rhodamine WT concentration in ppb and raw turbidity in NTU.

Contacts

Author :: Carl J Legleiter, Brandon J Sansom, Robert B Jacobson
Publisher :: U.S. Geological Survey
Distributor :: U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase

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MissouriDye_Fluorometers_boat.xml “Metadata describing the data from the fluorometer deployed from the boat” Original FGDC Metadata	View	25.19 KB	application/fgdc+xml
MissouriDyeFluorometers_boat.csv “Concentrations, turbidities, time stamps, and locations from flourometer on boat”		151.18 KB	text/csv
USGS_ScientistsMeasureDye.jpg “Measuring dye concentration during a tracer experiment on the Missouri River”		22.1 MB	image/jpeg

Related External Resources

Type: Related Primary Publication

Legleiter, C. J., Sansom, B. J., & Jacobson, R. B. (2022). Remote Sensing of Visible Dye Concentrations During a Tracer Experiment on a Large, Turbid River. Water Resources Research, 58(4), e2021WR031396. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR031396	https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR031396

Material Request Instructions

For questions concerning this data set, please contact:

Dr. Carl J. Legleiter - cjl@usgs.gov, 307-760-8369
Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory
United States Geological Survey
4620 Technology Drive, Suite #400
Golden, CO 80403

Purpose

One of the primary goals of this tracer experiment was to assess the feasibility of inferring concentrations of a visible dye (Rhodamine WT) from various types of remotely sensed data in a large, highly turbid natural river channel. Previous research on remote sensing of tracer dye concentrations has focused on clear-flowing streams, but the Missouri River is much more turbid. As a result, the effect of the dye on the reflectance of the water could be obscured by the effects of suspended sediment on reflectance. This experiment thus provided an initial test of the potential to map dye concentrations from remotely sensed data in more turbid rivers like the Missouri.

In situ measurements of Rhodamine WT dye concentration and turbidity made along transects by a moving boat during a tracer experiment on the Missouri River near Columbia, MO, on May 5, 2021

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