Atmospheric correction algorithms for satellite ocean color data: performance comparison of "OCTS-type" and "CZCS-type" algorithms

The paper first describes the atmospheric correction algorithm for the Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS) visible band data used at Earth Observation Center (EOC) of National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). It uses 10 candidate aerosol models including "Asian dust model" introduced in consideration of the unique feature of aerosols over the east Asian waters. Based on the observations at 670 and 865 nm bands where the reflectance of the water body can be discarded, the algorithm selects a pair of aerosol models that accounts best for the observed spectral reflectances to synthesize the aerosol reflectance in other bands. The paper also evaluates the performance of the algorithm by comparing the satellite estimates of water-leaving radiance and chlorophyll-a concentration with selected buoy-and ship-measured data. In comparison with the old CZCS-type atmospheric correction algorithm where the aerosol reflectance is as-sumed to be spectrally independent, the OCTS algorithm records factor 2-3 less error in estimating the normalized water-leaving radiances. In terms of chlorophyll-a concentration estimation, however, the accuracy stays vey similar compared to that of the CZCS-type algorithm. This is considered to be due to the nature of in-water algorithm which relies on spectral ratio of water-leaving radiances.