Thermal modeling of heat dissipation in the pen branch delta using thermal infrared imagery
John R. Jensen, Elijah Ramsey, Halkard E. Mackey, Michael Edward Hodgson · Geocarto International · 1988
Thermal infrared imagery of the Pen Branch delta on the Savannah River Plant near Aiken, South Carolina, USA, were obtained on 12 March 1983 and 6 April 1984 during flood and non‐flood conditions. These data were registered to one another and then analyzed using digital image processing techniques to: (1) compute the rate of temperature change as the thermal effluent progressed downstream using transect techniques, and (2) mathematically model the spatial distribution of the thermal effluent using fourth and seventh‐order trend surfaces. These two mathematical expressions of the thermal data allowed more effective understanding of how the temperature of the thermal effluent changed as it progressed through the Pen Branch delta hydrologic system.