Empirical Modeling of Clarity in the Caspian Sea using MERIS Data

Abstract

In this study, univariate linear regression model was developed for monitoring secchi depth in the Caspian Sea using level 1b and level 2 data. The in-situ measurements were carried outduring 25 one-day campaigns in the Caspian Sea. In this study, 25 level 1b MERIS images were utilized and then converted to level 2 data using C2R processor. The ability of univariate linear regression for the extraction of secchi depth from level 1b and level 2 wasinvestigated. The results demonstrated that the level 2 data lead to better performance than level 1b data. The level 2 data are able to retrieve the secchi depth in the Caspian Sea with correlation coefficient and percent of absolute error about 0.86 and 28.6%, respectively. Finally, secchi depth map of Caspian Sea was retrieved from MERIS level 2 images using developed univariate empirical model.

Keywords

• secchi depth
• clarity model
• meris
• caspian sea
• univariate regression