Numerical simulations of transspectral processes in clear and turbid waters: Implications for water quality remote sensing in the visible spectrum

Abstract

Assessed are the spectral impacts of water Raman and chlorophyll (chl) and dissolved organics (doe) fluorescence on both upwelling radiance and water quality retrieval results. It is found that unlike water Raman scattering, chl and doe fluorescence impact on both upwelling radiance and retrieval results can be very substantial in waters rich in chl and/or doe, Our simulations indicate that, generally, the chl or doe retrieval errors decrease with increasing content of suspended minerals (sm). The retrieval errors are strongly dependent not only on the optically active water constituents concentration vector, but also on the chl or doc fluorescence yield: the enhancement of this quality results in substantial worsening of water quality retrieval results