China coastal sea is characteristic of the high concentration of suspended matter which has complex components of mineral particles, organic detritus and phytoplankton, etc. The similarity of spectrum characters of mineral particles and organic particles in backscattering coefficient, and the organic detritus and color dissolve organic matters (CDOM) in absorption coefficient makes the information inverse of coastal ocean color become a very difficult work. In this paper, based on the in situ data of optical investigation in East China Sea in the spring of 2003, including the absorption coefficients of CDOM and de-pigment particles from laboratory spectrophotometer measurement, and the field measurement with ac-9 (WET labs, Inc.), the optical properties of suspended particles were studied. And then, a semi-analysis algorithm of particle attenuation coefficient (Cp) in ECS was developed. There are two key steps in this algorithm, one is the estimation of the ratio of particle backscattering coefficient to the total scattering coefficient; and the other is the retrieval of absorption coefficient of CDOM. With this inversion algorithm of Cp and the input of remote sensing reflectance obtained from the underwater profiler radiometer (Satlantic. Inc.), the particle attenuation coefficient was inversed, which was consistent well with the in situ data of Cp . In the high turbid water, the scattering signal is dominant in the Cp values, so the modeled-Cp was less than the in situ data due to the underestimation of backscattering coefficient in IOPs semi-analysis algorithms. The modeled -Cp at 660nm wavelength has the R² of 0.84 and RMSE=0.22 compared with the attenuation coefficient at 650nm measured by the ac-9, in which the absorption coefficient of CDOM is neglect. The semi-analysis algorithms of Cp developed in this paper showed a good potential to estimate the biogeochemical parameters, like POC, but the further study should be focused on the distinguish of the sub-division materials with more in situ data set.

Date Published: 13 October 2008
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 7105, Remote Sensing of the Ocean, Sea Ice, and Large Water Regions 2008, 71050Y (13 October 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.800077

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7105:
Remote Sensing of the Ocean, Sea Ice, and Large Water Regions 2008
Charles R. Bostater; Stelios P. Mertikas; Xavier Neyt; Miguel Velez-Reyes, Editor(s)