SatHDSS
SatHDSS · satellite algae data explorer

Which satellite sees algae, where, and how often

Three icddr,b surveillance sites in Bangladesh form a coastal → riverine → urban inland gradient. The classic ocean-colour cholera mechanism should weaken along it while local eutrophic blooms take over. This site is the data layer behind that test: every source, variable, method, script and paper, cross-linked.

26
Algae datasets
25 free · 14 need no account
13
Sensors
1997 → 2026, see the timeline
10
Algae variables
formula, lag and panel column for each
12
Papers
4 cited but missing from the folder

The three sites

Rural COASTAL

Chakaria HDSS

21.78940 N, 92.05500 E · 22.9 x 29.4 km · 10 km to the sea
Algae regime
THE KEY SITE. Coastal ocean-colour chlorophyll from the Bay of Bengal IS directly applicable here. Brackish shrimp ponds sit in exactly the salinity band optimal f…
Datasets that apply
16 yes 8 partial 2 no
Rural riverine

Matlab HDSS

23.39130 N, 90.70120 E · 20.4 x 22.1 km · 250 km to the sea
Algae regime
MIXED. The Meghna is wide enough for 250-300 m sensors, so both the regional river-plume signal and local pond blooms are observable.
Datasets that apply
11 yes 11 partial 4 no
Urban inland

Dhaka City

23.78660 N, 90.42350 E · 17.6 x 26.0 km · 300 km to the sea
Algae regime
LOCAL eutrophic blooms dominate. Coastal plankton intrusion is essentially irrelevant at this distance.
Datasets that apply
9 yes 6 partial 11 no
The design in one sentence. The three sites form a COASTAL -> RIVERINE -> URBAN INLAND gradient. This is the study design's greatest strength: the classic coastal-chlorophyll/plankton-intrusion hypothesis (Lobitz 2000, Jutla 2013, Constantin de Magny 2008) should be STRONGEST at Chakaria, INTERMEDIATE at Matlab, and WEAKEST at Dhaka, where local eutrophic pond and lake blooms should dominate instead. That gradient is directly testable and has never been published.

Start here

1 · See what exists

Every algae source, filtered by site, with cadence, resolution, cost, login and the exact command that fetches it.

2 · Understand the numbers

What each variable is, the formula behind it, its expected lag to cholera, and how the pipeline turns passes into panels.

3 · Run it

Thirteen scripts in run order, each with its command, inputs and outputs — plus the CSV exports themselves.

Highest-reliability sources

CodeProductReliabilityCadence ResolutionCost
AL01 ESA Ocean Colour CCI v6.0 — merged multi-sensor chlorophyll-a A+ Gold Daily / 5-day / 8-day / MONTHLY 4 km (1 km regional available) FREE detail →
AL02 Copernicus Marine GlobColour — L4 gap-free multi-sensor chlorophyll A+ Gold DAILY (gap-free!) 4 km FREE detail →
AL03 Sentinel-2 MSI Level-2A (harmonised) A+ Gold 5 days (2-3 d with S2C from 2025) 10 m (B2,3,4,8) / 20 m (B5 red-edge 705 nm) FREE detail →
AL04 Sentinel-3 OLCI — 21 bands incl. 620 nm (phycocyanin) & 709 nm (red e… A+ Gold ~1-2 days (S3A + S3B) 300 m full resolution FREE detail →
AL05 Landsat 5 / 7 / 8 / 9 Collection 2 Level-2 A+ Gold 16 days per satellite (~8 d with two in… 30 m FREE detail →
AL06 MODIS-Aqua Level-3 SMI A Reliable Daily / 8-day / monthly 4.6 km FREE detail →
AL07 SeaWiFS Level-3 SMI A Reliable Daily / 8-day / monthly 9 km (4 km avail.) FREE detail →
AL08 VIIRS SNPP / NOAA-20 chlorophyll (NOAA CoastWatch) A Reliable DAILY 4 km (750 m for some SNPP products) FREE detail →
One honest limit, stated up front. Everything the Earth Engine pipeline produces is an ordinal index, not a calibrated concentration. Sen2Cor is land-optimised and returns negative reflectance over dark turbid water. For publishable mg/m³ you need ACOLITE Dark Spectrum Fitting on Sentinel-2 L1C, or local calibration against in-situ chlorophyll — see Methods and dataset AL18.