Partitioning Optical Properties Into Organic and Inorganic Components from Ocean Color Imagery

Abstract : Current ocean color satellite algorithms generally partition the total absorption coefficient into two components, one due to phytoplankton and one due to the combined effect of detritus and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM, or gelbstoff). Detritus and CDOM exhibit similar spectral shapes so they are typically modeled together. The separation of the paniculate phase into organic and inorganic components through remote sensing has only recently been addressed. We present algorithms to estimate the concentrations of total suspended solids (TSS), paniculate organic matter (POM), and paniculate inorganic matter (PIM) from SeaWiFS imagery. Furthermore, we partition the combined CDOM/detrital absorption coefficient into separate components, and using a previously published algorithm, we partition the scattering coefficient (b) into organic (bo) and inorganic (b;) components.