Satellites to help track toxic algae turning Windermere green
Windermere is to be monitored from space as part of an effort to crack down on pollution levels in England’s largest lake.
Environmentalists from the Lake District have joined forces with the UK Space Agency for a project that will aim to track inflows of harmful nutrients, including phosphorus, from sewage works, agriculture and septic tanks.
In recent years, phosphorus levels have fuelled large blooms of blue-green algae — a kind of microbe — across Windermere, frequently turning the water a vivid green. It can be toxic, causing rashes, vomiting and fever, while for dogs, it can be deadly. When it rots it can devastate fragile aquatic ecosystems by starving them of oxygen.
Satellite data will be used to monitor the levels of chlorophyll-a, a
