Drinking-water utilities
A warning between lab samples, for every source reservoir.
Free · no account · an answer in about a minute
Satellites watch every lake. Now you can, too.
Pick any lake or reservoir. AquaLens reads its newest satellite image and tells you, in plain words, what it means for swimming, pets, fishing and drinking water, and how sure it is.
Built on open data and free infrastructure
- ESA Copernicus
- Sentinel-2 L2A
- Microsoft Planetary Computer
- Google Gemini
- USGS Landsat
- NASA POWER
- ESA WorldCover
- JRC Global Surface Water
- OpenStreetMap
- OpenFreeMap
- MapLibre GL
How it works
From a lake on the map to an answer in a minute.
1Pick a lake
Search for it, paste coordinates or tap it on the map. AquaLens draws its outline for you.
2The satellite reads it
AquaLens finds the newest clear satellite photo of the lake and reads its colour for algae, mud and floating plants.
3Get a clear answer
Low, Medium or High, what it means for swimming, pets, fishing and drinking water, and how sure it is. About a minute.
Everything in AquaLens
From a satellite photo to what you do next.
For the people who use the water, and the teams who look after it.
See
The water, as the satellite sees it.
Any lake on a map
Search, paste coordinates or tap a lake; its outline is traced for you.
The real picture
The satellite photo the answer comes from, with the area that was checked.
12 months from space
A clear photo of each month, so you see the season, not one day.
Understand
What the photo means, in plain words.
Low, Medium or High
Where the water sits on the WHO's algae alert levels.
A summary in plain words
Written by five AI agents, which explain the result but never change it.
How sure it is
How much of the water the satellite could see through the cloud.
Act
What to do next, and who to tell.
Where to sample first
For water managers: the lakes where a lab test would tell you most.
Say what you saw
Green water, a smell, scum or dead fish at the water, added to the result.
Alerts
A browser or email alert when a lake you watch changes level.
How the science is checked
Science that checks itself.
On every change, real satellite photos are scored again and compared with lab tests, and the result is published here, including what is still wrong.
Why it matters
A bloom at the intake can shut off a city’s tap water.
In August 2014 a bloom at the Lake Erie intake left more than 400,000 people in Toledo, Ohio, without safe tap water for two days. Lab samples are precise but few; a satellite sees every lake every few days and shows where to look first.
Reservoir and lake managers
Where a lab sample would tell you most, ranked.
Agencies reporting water quality
Lakes nobody samples, as open data for your reports.
Advisory screening only: AquaLens does not replace laboratory testing or a utility’s own monitoring obligations.
Ready when you are
Point AquaLens at your reservoir and see what the satellite sees.
Tap a lake or reservoir on the map. The satellite image, the risk and a plain-language explanation arrive in about a minute, with no account required.