TECHNOLOGY FOR MONITORING ALGAE BLOOM

[Anchor Lead]

A team of Korean scientists has developed a way to monitor algae blooms without running water quality tests by using a drone equipped with a special camera. This new technique is expected to speed up Korea's green tide response by expediting algae bloom detection and predicting spread patterns.

[Pkg]

This is Daecheongho Lake videotaped by a drone. It appears green everywhere, rendering it impossible to tell with the naked eye whether algae blooms have occurred. But this drone, equipped with a hyperspectral camera, is capable of sensing finer wavelengths of an object. The camera measures the wavelength of phycocyanin, one of the pigments contained in algae. The higher the concentration of green algae, the redder it shows up in the image.

[Soundbite] KWON YONG-HWAN(ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE) : "The hyperspectral camera divides light spectrum information into 200 wavelengths. It can pick out a wavelength unique to green algae to determine the occurrence of green tide."

Until now, it took more than two days to collect a sample and analyze it to determine whether algae blooms have occurred. But this hyperspectral camera is capable of capturing an image so that the image itself could be analyzed immediately and accurately to detect the occurrence of algae blooms in a body of water. Big data analysis also makes it possible to predict how the green tide would spread with a 90% accuracy rate.

[Soundbite] KIM KYUNG-HYUN(NAT'L INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH) : "We could dramatically reduce green tide occurrences if red clay and other algae removing substances are sprayed at locations where green tide is expected to occur."

In this year alone, water-polluting algae blooms have occurred in six bodies of water nationwide and green tide alerts have been issued for over 200 days. Now the research team is working furiously to find a way to produce hyperspectral cameras locally.