Effects of Nonuniform Vertical Profiles of Suspended Particles on Remote Sensing Reflectance of Turbid Water

Validation of remote-sensing reflectance (Rrs) products is necessary for the quantitative application of ocean color satellite data. While validation of Rrs products has been performed in low to moderate turbidity waters, their performance in highly turbid water remains poorly known. Here, we used in situ Rrs data from Hangzhou Bay (HZB), one of the world’s most turbid estuaries, to evaluate agency-distributed Rrs products for multiple ocean color sensors, including the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), Chinese Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner aboard HaiYang-1C (COCTS/HY1C), Ocean and Land Color Instrument aboard Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B, respectively (OLCI/S3A and OLCI/S3B), Second-Generation Global Imager aboard Global Change Observation Mission-Climate (SGLI/GCOM-C), and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite (VIIRS/SNPP). Results showed that GOCI and SGLI/GCOM-C had almost no effective Rrs products in the HZB. Among the others four sensors (COCTS/HY1C, OLCI/S3A, OLCI/S3B, and VIIRS/SNPP), VIIRS/SNPP obtained the largest correlation coefficient (R) with a value of 0.7, while OLCI/S3A obtained the best mean percentage differences (PD) with a value of −13.30%. The average absolute percentage difference (APD) values of the four remote sensors are close, all around 45%. In situ Rrs data from the AERONET-OC ARIAKE site were also used to evaluate the satellite-derived Rrs products in moderately turbid coastal water for comparison. Compared with the validation results at HZB, the performances of Rrs from GOCI, OLCI/S3A, OLCI/S3B, and VIIRS/SNPP were much better at the ARIAKE site with the smallest R (0.77) and largest APD (35.38%) for GOCI, and the worst PD for these four sensors was only −13.15%, indicating that the satellite-retrieved Rrs exhibited better performance. In contrast, Rrs from COCTS/HY1C and SGLI/GCOM-C at ARIAKE site was still significantly underestimated, and the R values of the two satellites were not greater than 0.7, and the APD values were greater than 50%. Therefore, the performance of satellite Rrs products degrades significantly in highly turbid waters and needs to be improved for further retrieval of ocean color components.

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Monitoring Changes in the Transparency of the Largest Reservoir in Eastern China in the Past Decade, 2013–2020

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13132570 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 2570

Author(s):

Teng Li ◽

Bozhong Zhu ◽

Fei Cao ◽

Hao Sun ◽

Xianqiang He ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Mean Squared Error ◽

Eastern China ◽

Water Environment ◽

Relative Difference ◽

Boreal Summer ◽

Support Vector ◽

Lake Area ◽

The Past ◽

Remote Sensing Reflectance

Based on characteristics analysis about remote sensing reflectance, the Secchi Disk Depth (SDD) in the Qiandao Lake was predicted from the Landsat8/OLI data, and its changing rates on a pixel-by-pixel scale were obtained from satellite remote sensing for the first time. Using 114 matchups data pairs during 2013–2019, the SDD satellite algorithms suitable for the Qiandao Lake were obtained through both the linear regression and machine learning (Support Vector Machine) methods, with remote sensing reflectance (Rrs) at different OLI bands and the ratio of Rrs (Band3) to Rrs (Band2) as model input parameters. Compared with field observations, the mean absolute relative difference and root mean squared error of satellite-derived SDD were within 20% and 1.3 m, respectively. Satellite-derived results revealed that SDD in the Qiandao Lake was high in boreal spring and winter, and reached the lowest in boreal summer, with the annual mean value of about 5 m. Spatially, high SDD was mainly concentrated in the southeast lake area (up to 13 m) close to the dam. The edge and runoff area of the lake were less transparent, with an SDD of less than 4 m. In the past decade (2013–2020), 5.32% of Qiandao Lake witnessed significant (p < 0.05) transparency change: 4.42% raised with a rate of about 0.11 m/year and 0.9% varied with a rate of about −0.09 m/year. Besides, the findings presented here suggested that heavy rainfall would have a continuous impact on the Qiandao Lake SDD. Our research could promote the applications of land observation satellites (such as the Landsat series) in water environment monitoring in inland reservoirs.

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Meta-classification of remote sensing reflectance to estimate trophic status of inland and nearshore waters

ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing ◽

10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2021.04.003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 176 ◽

pp. 109-126

Author(s):

Mortimer Werther ◽

Evangelos Spyrakos ◽

Stefan G.H. Simis ◽

Daniel Odermatt ◽

Kerstin Stelzer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Trophic Status ◽

Remote Sensing Reflectance

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Impact of Monsoon-Transported Anthropogenic Aerosols and Sun-Glint on the Satellite-Derived Spectral Remote Sensing Reflectance in the Indian Ocean

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13020184 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 184

Author(s):

Rongjie Liu ◽

Jie Zhang ◽

Tingwei Cui ◽

Haocheng Yu

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Indian Ocean ◽

Infrared Imaging ◽

Atmospheric Correction ◽

Spatiotemporal Pattern ◽

Anthropogenic Aerosols ◽

Remote Sensing Reflectance ◽

The Indian Ocean ◽

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ◽

Terra Modis

Spectral remote sensing reflectance (Rrs(λ), sr−1) is one of the most important products of ocean color satellite missions, where accuracy is essential for retrieval of in-water, bio-optical, and biogeochemical properties. For the Indian Ocean (IO), where Rrs(λ) accuracy has not been well documented, the quality of Rrs(λ) products from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer onboard both Terra (MODIS-Terra) and Aqua (MODIS-Aqua), and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite onboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership spacecraft (VIIRS-NPP), is evaluated and inter-compared based on a quality assurance (QA) system, which can objectively grade each individual Rrs(λ) spectrum, with 1 for a perfect spectrum and 0 for an unusable spectrum. Taking the whole year of 2016 as an example, spatiotemporal pattern of Rrs(λ) quality in the Indian Ocean is characterized for the first time, and the underlying factors are elucidated. Specifically, QA analysis of the monthly Rrs(λ) over the IO indicates good quality with the average scores of 0.93 ± 0.02, 0.92 ± 0.02 and 0.92 ± 0.02 for VIIRS-NPP, MODIS-Aqua, and MODIS-Terra, respectively. Low-quality (~0.7) data are mainly found in the Bengal Bay (BB) from January to March, which can be attributed to the imperfect atmospheric correction due to anthropogenic absorptive aerosols transported by the northeasterly winter monsoon. Moreover, low-quality (~0.74) data are also found in the clear oligotrophic gyre zone (OZ) of the south IO in the second half of the year, possibly due to residual sun-glint contributions. These findings highlight the effects of monsoon-transported anthropogenic aerosols, and imperfect sun-glint removal on the Rrs(λ) quality. Further studies are advocated to improve the sun-glint correction in the oligotrophic gyre zone and aerosol correction in the complex ocean–atmosphere environment.

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