Introduction
Recent advancements in cloud computing offer processing capabilities and free access to many EO data sets. Remote sensing researchers use cloud computing platforms such as Google Earth Engine (GEE), Digital Earth Africa (DEA), and Microsoft’s Planetary Computer to process and analyze EO data at national and regional levels or global scale. Water management authorities can use EO data to complement in situ water monitoring stations. While some EO systems have limitations and caveats in their use for water quality monitoring, medium to high spatial resolution satellite data such as Landsat or Sentinel-2 is freely available.
During the past decades, remote sensing researchers have used EO data to study sediment loads or suspended solids in the surface water bodies. For example, researchers have used satellite-derived indices such as the normalized difference suspended sediment index (NDSSI) and normalized difference turbidity Index (NDTI). It is important to note that the performance of these indices varies. Therefore, it is essential to understand how these indices perform for estimating suspended sediments in the surface water bodies.