Evaluation of Satellite Retrievals of Ocean Chlorophyll-a in the California Current

Remote Sensing

Mati Kahru¹  Raphael M. Kudela²  Clarissa R. Anderson²  Marlenne Manzano-Sarabia³ 

[1] Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 95064, USA; E-Mail:;Ocean Sciences Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA; E-Mails:;Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico; E-Mail:

关键词: ocean color;    phytoplankton;    chlorophyll;    California Current;    remote sensing;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs6098524

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

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 (R²) 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 (R² from 0.74 to 0.52 and MdAPE from 23% to 31%, respectively), while the other sensors had R² 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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland