What if we could spot harmful algal blooms before they spread? 🌊

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Algal blooms, [music] particularly those involving cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, can have significant negative impacts on water quality, aquatic life, and human health. The water itself is a strong absorber of certain wavelengths of light, particularly in the red to infrared and ultraviolet regions, which is why when you have very clear water, it appears blue.

[00:00:20]However, when you get into more coastal and inland environments, [music] the presence of other substances such as phytoplankton or sediment significantly alters these absorption characteristics.

[00:00:29]Luckily, cyanobacteria have some distinct spectral features that we can exploit to be able to identify them.

[00:00:35]Unlike other phytoplankton, they contain the pigment phycocyanin, which contains a strong absorption peak centered at about 620 [music] nm. Thus, with an HSI system such as ours, we can exploit this feature and quantify the amount of absorption happening in this region, which would signify that this bloom is indeed cyanobacteria, and specific alerts and health advisories can be broadcast to the local community.