Publications

Kahru, Mati; Kudela, Raphael M.; Anderson, Clarissa R.; Manzano-Sarabia, Marlenne; Mitchell, B. Greg (2014). Evaluation of Satellite Retrievals of Ocean Chlorophyll-a in the California Current. REMOTE SENSING, 6(9), 8524-8540.

Abstract
Retrievals of ocean surface chlorophyll-a concentration (Chla) by multiple ocean color satellite sensors (SeaWiFS, MODIS-Terra, MODIS-Aqua, MERIS, VIIRS) using standard algorithms were evaluated in the California Current using a large archive of in situ measurements. Over the full range of in situ Chla, all sensors produced a coefficient of determination (R-2) between 0.79 and 0.88 and a median absolute percent error (MdAPE) between 21% and 27%. However, at in situ Chla > 1 mg m(-3), only products from MERIS (both the ESA produced algal_1 and NASA produced chlor_a) maintained reasonable accuracy (R-2 from 0.74 to 0.52 and MdAPE from 23% to 31%, respectively), while the other sensors had R-2 below 0.5 and MdAPE higher than 36%. We show that the low accuracy at medium and high Chla is caused by the poor retrieval of remote sensing reflectance.

DOI:
10.3390/rs6098524

ISSN:
2072-4292