Frontiers in Remote Sensing (Mar 2023)

Determining the primary sources of uncertainty in the retrieval of marine remote sensing reflectance from satellite ocean color sensors II. Sentinel 3 OLCI sensors

  • Alexander Gilerson,
  • Alexander Gilerson,
  • Eder Herrera-Estrella,
  • Eder Herrera-Estrella,
  • Jacopo Agagliate,
  • Robert Foster,
  • Juan I. Gossn,
  • David Dessailly,
  • Ewa Kwiatkowska

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/frsen.2023.1146110
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4

Abstract

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Uncertainties in remote sensing reflectance Rrs for the Ocean Color sensors strongly affect the quality of the retrieval of concentrations of chlorophyll-a and water properties. By comparison of data from SNPP VIIRS and several AERONET-OC stations and MOBY, it was recently shown that the main uncertainties come from the Rayleigh-type spectral component (Gilerson et al., 2022), which was associated with small variability in the Rayleigh optical thickness in the atmosphere and/or its calculation. In addition, water variability spectra proportional to Rrs were found to play a significant role in coastal waters, while other components including radiances from aerosols and glint were small. This work expands on the previous study, following a similar procedure and applying the same model for the characterization of uncertainties to the Sentinel-3A and B OLCI sensors. It is shown that the primary sources of uncertainties are the same as for VIIRS, i.e., dominated by the Rayleigh-type component, with the total uncertainties for OLCI sensors typically higher in coastal areas than for VIIRS.

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