These data include water quality and surface reflectance data at three sites in Lake Allatoona, Georgia, U.S. in the summer of 2017. Water quality parameters were measured including chlorophyll-a, temperature, pH, DO, and EC. The data were gathered using a YSI sonde and GER 1500 spectroradiometer in the field, and samples taken and analyzed and in a lab by the HPLC method. These data are in CSV and spreadsheet format. The spectroradiometer data were used for calibration of historical Landsat data by methods outlined in the included spreadsheet.

These data and methods are a part of our study integrating Landsat data and in-situ data from public datasets in which we hypothesized that some of the major drivers of phytoplankton blooms in Lake Allatoona were drought severity and rainfall intensity. We found that the drivers may differ depending on location in a lake or reservoir, and that drought indices showed the highest correlations in most of the linear models.