Lake Baikal ice: analysis of AVHRR imagery and simulation of under-ice phytoplankton bloom

Generation and sample applications of an integrated set of multi-spectral remotely sensed products for investigations of Lake Baikalʹs ice cover variability are presented. Different ice-snow cover classes and unfrozen water distributions are estimated from calibrated and navigated Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 1.1-km imagery of Lake Baikal for January 1994 through May 1998. The calculated downward irradiance field in the photosynthetic available radiance band has served as input for a bio-optical model of phytoplankton dynamics. It is shown that the relationship between the production of main taxonomic groups of Baikalʹs phytoplankton is highly sensitive to the variability of ice conditions.