Datasets of Radwin 2023 Great Salt Lake Remote Sensing Historical Assessment

Included are the culminated datasets for an article in review to be published with the Utah Geological Association. This data helps an investigator reproduce or utilize the data. There are datasets for both Landsat and Sentinel, for both the North and South arms of the Great Salt Lake. Additionally, there are datasets documenting the NDWI threshold used for each Landsat image, the outlier images not used in analyses, NDWI error assessment, and calculation of stats/facts.

Paper abstract:

The Great Salt Lake has been rapidly shrinking since the highstand of the mid-1980s, creating cause for concern in recent decades as the lake has reached historic lows. Many investigators have assessed the evolution of lake elevation, geochemistry, anthropogenic impacts, and links to climate and atmospheric processes; however, the use of remote sensing to study the evolution of the lake has been significantly limited. Harnessing recent advancements in cloud-processing, specifically Google Earth Engine cloud computing, this study utilizes over 600 Landsat TM/OLI and Sentinel MSI satellite images from 1984-2023 to present time-series analyses of remotely sensed Great Salt Lake water area, exposed lakebed area, surface cover types, and chlorophyll-a analyses paired with modelled estimates for water and exposed lakebed area. Results show that since the highstand of 1986-1987, the water area has declined by 45% (~3,000 km²) and the exposed lakebed area has increased to ~3,500 km² from ~500 km². The area of unconsolidated sediments not protected by vegetation or halite crusts has risen to ~2,400 km². Significant halite crusts are observed in the North Arm, having a max extent of ~150 km² between 2002 and 2003, while only small extents of halite crusts are observed for the South Arm. Vegetation is more prevalent in the Bear River Bay and South Arm, with surface area increases over 400% since 1990. Gypsum is widely observed independent of halite crusts. The results highlight multiple instances of land-use/water-management that led to observable changes in water/exposed lakebed area and halite crust extent. This study demonstrates the important benefits of maintaining a lake elevation above ~4,194 ft to maximize lake and halite crust area, which would help mitigate possible dust events and maintain broad lake extent.

Files should be self-explanatory based on filename, where BRB means Bear River Bay. Note there are two video files animating the evolution of the North and South Arms of the Great Salt Lake using satellite imagery from 1984 to 2023. 

Visit https://github.com/radwinskis for details on code used for this study.

Please contact me at markradwin@gmail.com with any questions.