Regional Algorithms for European Seas: A Case Study Based on MERIS Data

Advances in satellite ocean color technologies and methodologies are expected to lead to the generation of coastal water bio-optical products with accuracies close to those targeted for oceanic regions. In view of contributing to such a progress, multilayer perceptron neural networks complying with standard Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) pigment indices were developed relying on regional highly accurate in situ data. This work illustrates and discusses the application to sample MERIS imagery of those neural networks trained to produce pigment indices in seas characterized by increased levels of bio-optical complexity: the Baltic, the Northern Adriatic, and the Western Black Seas.