Validation of MERIS reflectance and chlorophyll during the BENCAL cruise October 2002: preliminary validation of new demonstration products for phytoplankton functional types and photosynthetic parameters

We measured water leaving reflectance, phytoplankton pigments, optical properties and photosynthetic parameters in the southern Benguela ecosystem in October 2002. These data were used to validate MERIS standard products: reflectance (MERIS wavelengths) and Case 1 Chlorophyll‐a. In this heterogeneous area, accurate validation required sampling within a few minutes of the satellite overpass. Inter‐pigment relationships e.g. Total Chlorophyll (TChla) to Total Pigment (TP) were robust (R2∼0.99) yet pigment ratios (TChla/TP) were not constant (range 0.44 to 0.62) increasing log‐linearly with biomass (R2∼0.7). Photosynthetic parameters (e.g. Photosynthetic Quantum Efficiency, PQE) and optical ratios (a676/a440) also increased log‐linearly with biomass (R2∼0.8). PQE, pigment and optical ratios were linearly inter‐correlated (R2∼0.7 to 0.8). From these data we derived the bio‐optical traits for several phytoplankton functional types (PFTs): micro‐plankton (diatoms and dinoflagellates) had high biomass, pigment ratios and PQE; nano‐flagellates had low to intermediate biomass, pigment ratios and PQE; prokaryotes had very low biomass, pigment ratios and PQE. We present MERIS data analysed for PFTs and new products (PQE).

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