The objective of this work is to estimate chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration in the Pearl River estuary in China. To test the performance of algorithms for the estimation of the chl-a concentration in these productive turbid waters, the maximum band ratio (MBR) and near-infrared–red (NIR–red) models are used in this study. Specific focus is placed on (a) comparing the ability of the models to ...

The actual condition of vegetation cover is represented by its spectral signature. Photosynthetic active vegetation is characterized by a low reflectance in the red and a high reflectance in the near infrared spectra. This specific feature is used to calculate different vegetation indices. One index is the MERIS Global Vegetation Index (MGVI), the other one is the Red Edge Position (REP), which...

The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) launched the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite including the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on October 28, 2011which has the capability to monitor ocean color properties. Four months after launch, we present an initial assessment of the VIIRS ocean color products including inter-comparisons with satellite and in s...

The composition and abundance of algal pigments provide information on phytoplankton community characteristics such as photoacclimation, overall biomass and taxonomic composition. In particular, pigments play a major role in photoprotection and in the light-driven part of photosynthesis. Most phytoplankton pigments can be measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques appl...

An inter-comparison study of the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 0.55 μm retrieved using different satellite instruments and algorithms based on the analysis of backscattered solar light is presented for a single scene over central Europe on October 13th, 2005. For the first time comparisons have been performed for as many as six instruments on multiple satellite platforms. Ten different alg...

In this paper the problem of enhanced colour representation of MERIS data is discussed. Four methods are presented which tackle the problem of multispectral data colour visualisation. In order to assess these colour display strategies a data analysis using both statistical and information measures is presented. The performance of the proposed methods is evaluated objectively by means of mutual ...

Coastal marine environment is a complex system and its management requires adequate information. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are considered pilot sites useful to define innovative tools for the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). Their management requires however acquaintance with the relationships between the protected site and the status of the coastal neighbouring areas in order to ...

Evaluation of the MERIS aerosol product over land with AERONET J. Vidot , R. Santer, and O. Aznay Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences de l’Environnement, Maison de la Recherche en Environnement Naturel, Université du Littoral Cote d’Opale, Wimereux, France now at: Lab. de Météorologie Physique, Université...