Your lake is photographed almost every day
Right now, satellites pass over your lake nearly every day and record what its surface looks like. Most lake communities never see those pictures. They find out about a bloom when someone posts a photo of green water, or about runoff when the cove turns brown after a storm.
Lake Pulse now puts that view to work. Satellites can't replace a water sample or a trained eye on the shoreline. What they give you is the whole lake, on most days, going back years. That is something no dock, boat or volunteer schedule can match.
Three levels of detail
Every lake on Lake Pulse starts with a free view. Bloom Season shows bloom activity across your lake from freely available satellite imagery. Beyond that, satellite products come in three levels of detail. The sharper the picture, the smaller the area worth looking at, and the more it costs.
| Offering | What it shows you | Detail | How you buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloom Season | Bloom activity across your lake this summer | Half a tennis court (10 m) | Free in your lake portal |
| Water Snapshot 10 m | Bloom and sediment across the whole lake, right now | Half a tennis court (10 m) | Priced on your area, from $50 |
| Water History 10 m | Bloom and sediment, season by season, back to 2015 | Half a tennis court (10 m) | Priced on your area, from $600 |
| Weather Impact History 10 m | How your lake responded to heatwaves, storms and drought | Half a tennis court (10 m) | Priced on your area, from $750 |
| Water Watch 3 m | Daily bloom and sediment maps, May to October, with alerts | A parking space (3 m) | Priced on your area, from $1,600 a season |
| Water History 3 m | Bloom and sediment, season by season, since 2017 | A parking space (3 m) | Priced on your area, from $1,000 |
| Lake Capture 50 cm | A sharp, dated picture of your lake on a day you choose | A doormat (50 cm) | Priced on your area, from $900 a capture |
Every product works the same way: draw the lake, cove or shoreline you care about, and we invoice on the acreage you draw. The 10 m products need about 25 acres of open water. A small cove costs less than a whole reservoir.
When to reach for it
Most people don't wake up wanting satellite imagery. They want an answer to something they've noticed. Here is how common lake worries map to the Toolbox.
| What you're noticing | Start with | Pair it with |
|---|---|---|
| Green or blue-green water showing up in one cove, again | Water Watch 3 m on that cove | Algae Toxin Field Test for a same-day read; Microcystin Test to confirm |
| Neighbors asking whether it's safe to swim this weekend | Water Snapshot 10 m before the weekend, or Water Watch 3 m on your swim beaches | SwimCheck for bacteria; Member Bloom Reports from residents |
| Brown water at an inlet after every storm | Water Watch 3 m on the inlet | RunoffCheck to find out what is coming in |
| Every big storm or heatwave seems to set the lake back | Weather Impact History 10 m | RunoffCheck; a Lakewide Weather Station for future events |
| Shoreline erosion and cloudy water near a wake zone | Water Watch 3 m on the shoreline | WakeCheck, with sediment tests before and after a busy weekend |
| "Blooms are getting worse" comes up at every board meeting | Water History 10 m for the whole lake, or Water History 3 m for a cove | PulseCheck for a lab baseline |
| You paid for a treatment, aeration or dredging and want to know if it worked | Water History (10 m or 3 m), then Water Watch 3 m | BloomCheck or ClarityCheck for lab before-and-after |
| A bloom or storm is happening now and you need it on record | Lake Capture 50 cm | Lake Sentinel Buoy for continuous readings next season |
| Weed beds seem to be spreading | Lake Capture 50 cm in June and September | Lake Census eDNA or PlantCheck to identify what's there |
Four lakes, four reasons
The 40-acre lake with one problem cove. A homeowners association keeps hearing about green water in the north cove each August. Free satellite views can't resolve a cove that small. The HOA draws a polygon around the cove and orders Water Watch 3 m for the season. When the signal rises, members get an alert and a volunteer runs a field toxin test the same afternoon. The board finally knows when the problem starts and how long it lasts.
The reservoir town that depends on summer. Marinas, rentals and restaurants all lose money when a beach closes. The chamber of commerce watches three public beaches and the busiest cove with Water Watch 3 m. It cannot stop a bloom. What it can do is see one coming, check it, and share what has actually been seen and tested, rather than letting rumor close the whole lake.
The association applying for a grant. A state grant asks for evidence that blooms are a recurring problem. Memories and photos won't carry the application. Water History 10 m shows, season by season since 2015, when bloom signal appeared and where. The association attaches the frequency map and a lab baseline from PulseCheck.
The board that paid for a fix. After dredging the inlet, a lake district wants to know whether storm sediment still reaches the swimming area. It orders a Lake Capture 50 cm the week after the next big storm. It then compares this season's Water Watch sediment maps with Water History from the years before the project. The result is a dated, defensible answer to the question residents will ask.
Drone or satellite?
Both look down. They answer different questions. A satellite sees the whole lake on most days and remembers past years. A drone sees one spot, on one day, in fine detail.
| Satellite | Drone | |
|---|---|---|
| How much it sees | The whole lake at once, even very large ones | One area per flight; large lakes take several flights |
| How often | Most clear days, all season, with nobody on site | The day of the flight |
| Looking back | Back to 2015 at 10 m, and 2017 at 3 m | Only from the day you first fly |
| Detail | Half a tennis court (10 m) to a doormat (50 cm) | Close enough to count lily pads or spot a single invasive plant |
| Clouds | Has to wait for a clear day | Flies under the clouds |
| What it needs | A polygon drawn on a map | A licensed FAA Part 107 pilot, a flight window and permission to fly |
Choose satellite to watch a whole season, compare years, or cover a lake too big to fly. Choose a drone for plant-by-plant detail, a specific shoreline problem, or a day when clouds would block the satellite. Many lakes use both: satellite to find where to look, drone to look closely.
What a satellite can't tell you
A satellite measures color, not chemistry. It can show where water looks like a bloom or carries sediment, but it cannot name the algae, detect a toxin or measure phosphorus. It sees only the surface, and only when the sky is clear. A quiet map does not mean the water is safe.
That is why every satellite product points you to the ground. The signal tells you where and when to sample, and the lab or field test tells you what is in the water. Results can help you make decisions about safe swimming, but are not definitive for every place and time, and it is always good practice to check posted signs and your state or local health authorities.
Start with the question
You don't need to understand pixels to use any of this. Begin with what your lake community keeps asking: Is the cove getting worse? Was this summer different? Did the project work? Then draw the area that matters and let the imagery do the watching.
Not sure which to choose? The free Bloom Season view is already in your lake portal, and a Boathouse call can help you decide whether to go sharper, go back in time or send a drone.
