Intra-annual variations of biases in remote sensing primary ocean color products at a coastal site

The assessment of uncertainties and biases affecting remote sensing products is a pre-condition for an effective exploitation of these data in climate studies. Within such a context, this work presents and discusses the intra-annual variations of biases in primary satellite ocean color products (i.e., normalized water-leaving radiance and aerosol optical thickness) at a coastal site in the northern Adriatic Sea for the period 2002–2010. The analysis is performed using in situ data from the Ocean Color component of the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET-OC) and satellite data products from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS-A and MODIS-T) onboard the Aqua and Terra platforms. Results indicate biases in the normalized water leaving radiance significantly increasing with the sun zenith angle and, to a lesser extent, also affected by variations in chlorophyll concentration and aerosol optical thickness.