Publications

Zhou, Q; Li, J; Tian, L; Song, Q; Wei, A (2020). Coupled approach for radiometric calibration and parameter retrieval to improve SPM estimations in turbid inland/coastal waters. OPTICS EXPRESS, 28(4), 5567-5586.

Abstract
High-precision radiometric calibration (RC) coefficients are required to retrieve reliable water quality parameter products in turbid inland/coastal waters. However, unreliable RC coefficients when satellite sensors lack accurate and in-time RC may lead to pronounced uncertainties in the products through error propagation. To address this issue, a novel approach for estimating water quality parameters, taking suspended particulate matter (SPM) as a case, was proposed by coupling the procedures of RC and SPM model development. The coupled models were established using digital numbers (DNs) from target sensors and "in-situ" SPM measurements from concurrent well-calibrated reference sensors, with the RC coefficients introduced as unknown model parameters. The approach was tested and validated in varied Chinese inland/coastal regions, including the Hongze lake (HL), Taihu lake (TL), and Hangzhou bay (HB). The results show: (1) the DN-based SPM models can achieve a degree of accuracy comparable to reflectance-based SPM models with determination coefficients (R-2) of 0.94, 0.92, and 0.72, and root-mean-square errors (RMSE) of 7.02 mg/L, 15.73 mg/L, and 619.2 mg/L for the HL, TL, and HB, respectively, and the biases less than 3% between the derived and official gain RC coefficients; (2) the uncertainty of SPM products increases exponentially as the RC uncertainty increases for exponential reflectance-based SPM models; (3) the DN-based SPM models are less sensitive to the uncertainties of atmospheric correction and RC coefficients, while the reflectance-based models suffer deeply. This study provides encouraging results to the improvement of SPM retrieval using the DN-based models by coupling RC and SPM retrieving processes, especially for sensors without precise RC coefficients. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

DOI:
10.1364/OE.384035

ISSN:
1094-4087