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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Utah Geological Association

Abstract


Modern and Ancient Lake Systems: New Problems and Perspectives, 1998
Pages 51-57

Locating Shoreline and Submarine Springs in Two Utah Lakes using Thermal Imagery

Robert L. Baskin

Abstract

The determination of ground-water inflow locations into lakes is important for water-budget calculations, water-quality sampling, and hydrologic modeling. Determination of inflow locations into a large lake is frequently limited by economic constraints and consequently must be based on remote measurement of the differences in certain characteristics between lake and inflow water. In studies of the East Shore of Great Salt Lake, and Utah Lake, Utah, thermal differences between lake water and ground-water inflow have been used to identify locations of ground-water inflow.

Aerial Thermal Infrared Multispectral scanner (TIMS) imagery was georeferenced, corrected for atmospheric interference, and enhanced to provide interpretive images that show thermal anomalies at the surface of the lakes and along the shorelines. Relative temperature differences observed in the data were attributed to surface- and ground-water inflow. Calculations using Planck’s Law and TIMS internal reference data showed a difference in temperature between the large, thermally uniform areas of the lake and the suspected inflow areas.

Four suspected ground-water inflow sites were identified in the Great Salt Lake imagery and 61 suspected ground-water inflow sites were identified in the Utah Lake imagery. Three of the four sites in the Great Salt Lake were field verified as springs. The remaining site was a submerged flowing well. Twenty-five of the Utah Lake sites were investigated and field verified as individual springs or groups of springs. The remaining Utah Lake locations were not investigated because of access problems and time constraints.


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