Comparison of different spatial resolution thermal infrared data in monitoring thermal plume from the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant

Abstract

Nuclear power industry had a great development in China in recent years and the environmental problems, such as thermal plume, has caused wide public concern. Taking the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant as example, this paper computed and achieved the sea surface temperature distribution with MODIS, HJ-1B and Landsat-8 thermal infrared data separately. These data were imaged in same time phase but different spatial resolution. Based on verified method of average gulf temperature, thermal plume distribution in three kinds of data was achieved. The comparison showed that the Landsat-8 data with higher monitoring precision and better details in thermal plume was more suitable for small area monitoring than the other two, which were affected by mixed pixels caused by low spatial resolution. Considering the different hydrogeological conditions of various nuclear power plants, it's smart to monitoring thermal plume with different temporal and spatial resolution satellite data. It can be foreseen that unmanned plane with infrared scanner and remote sensing technique will be complementary for each other in thermal plume monitoring.