How many independent quantities can be extracted from ocean color?

Products derived from remote sensing reflectances ( R rs ? $$ {R}_{\mathrm{rs}}\left(\lambda \right) ), for example, chlorophyll, phytoplankton carbon, euphotic depth, or particle size, are widely used in oceanography. Problematically, may have fewer degrees of freedom (DoF) than measured wavebands products. Here, we show that a global sea surface hyperspectral dataset has DoF = 4. MODIS-like multispectral equivalent situ data also 4, while their SeaWiFS 3. Both multispectral-equivalent datasets predict individual wavelengths' within nominal uncertainties. Remotely sensed climatological 2, as information is lost by atmospheric correction, shifting to larger spatiotemporal scales, and/or more open-ocean measurements, but suites -derived products 1. These results suggest based on existing satellites' not independent and should be treated such, measurements hold unutilized information, future multi- especially hyper-spectral algorithms must rigorously consider correlations between wavebands.