Louisiana Coastal Surveillance
PI : Prof Nan Walker
Mississippi River Diversions are an important component of coastal restoration efforts. Diversions introduce freshwater, sediment, and nutrients to the coast that are crucial for combating saltwater intrusion, marsh deterioration and land-loss.
At the ESL, image products have been developed which enable real-time and long-term surveillance of environmental parameters including sea surface temperature, suspended sediments, water mass color/type, and chlorophyll-a estimates. River water can be detected in our imagery as it is relatively low in temperature and sediment-rich. Time sequence images of the Mississippi River flood event of 2011 are also available. Algal blooms typically develop from the introduction of river borne nutrients into lakes/bays and the coastal ocean. The high levels of phytoplankton in tandem with strong stratification on the Louisiana shelf leads to the development of hypoxia each summer (Walker and Rabalais, 2006).
Louisiana Coastal Surveillance Publications
- Estimating suspended sediment concentrations in a shallow estuary from MODIS red-channel reflectance
Haihong Zhao et al, July 2011. - The dynamics of the Mississippi River plume: Impact of topography, wind and offshore forcing on the fate of plume waters
Rafael V. Schiller et al, June 2011. - Estimation of cyanobacterial pigments in a freshwater lake using OCM satellite data
Padmanava Dash et al, January 2011. - Does local topography control hypoxia on the eastern Texas-Louisiana shelf
Steve DiMarco et al, February 2010. - Mississippi River Flood 2008: Observations of a Large Freshwater Diversion on Physical, Chemical, and Biological Characteristics of a Shallow Estuarine Lake
J. R. White et al, June 2009. - Circular plumes in Lake Pontchartrain estuary under wind straining
Chunyan Li et al, July 2008. - Modeling the Circulation of the Atchafalaya Bay System during Winter Cold Front Events. Part 1: Model Description and Validation
Mark Cobb et al, July 2008. - Modeling the Circulation of the Atchafalaya Bay System during Winter Cold Front Events. Part 2: River Plume Dynamics During Cold Fronts
Mark Cobb et al, July 2008. - Relationships among satellite chlorophyll a, river inputs and hypoxia on the Louisiana continental shelf, Gulf of Mexico
Nan Walker et al, December 2006. - An organic carbon budget for the Mississippi River Turbidity Plume and Plume Contributions to Air-sea CO2 Fluxes and Bottom Water Hypoxia
Rebecca E. Green et al, August 2006. - Effects of river discharge, wind stress, and slope eddies on circulation of the Mississippi river plume, Louisiana
Nan Walker et al, October 2005. - Wind- and Eddy-Related Shelf/Slope Circulation Processes and Coastal Upwelling in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico
Nan Walker et al, January 2005. - A Role for Remote Sensing in Managing Mississippi River Diversions
Nan Walker et al, December 2003. - Quantification of surface suspended sediments along a river dominated coast with NOAA AVHRR and SeaWiFS measurements: Louisiana, USA
Nan Walker et al, January 2002. - Sedimentation along the eastern Chenier Plain Coast: down drift impact of a delta complex shift
Oscar Huh (1935-2013) et al, December 2001. - Property Fields in an effluent plume of the Mississippi River
Nan Walker et al, January 1997. - Evolution and structure of a coastal squirt off the Mississippi River delta: Northern Gulf of Mexico
Nan Walker et al, September 1996. - Satellite assessment of Mississippi River plume variability: causes and predictability
Nan Walker et al, January 1996.
