Mapping optical parameters of coastal sea waters using the Hyperion Imaging Spectrometer: intercomparison with MODIS ocean color products

This study employs a spectral fitting technique to retrieve optical parameters of coastal seawaters from hyperspectral reflectance spectra. The model used includes both the atmospheric effects and the scattering and absorption of light by sea water constituents. The problem of low SNR in Hyperion data can be overcome by averaging over a larger area (10 × 10 pixels). The retrieved water reflectance correlates well with the MODIS data. However, chlorophyll absorption correlates poorly with both the MODIS derived chlorophyll concentration and OC4 concentration. The results support the general observations that the band ratio based algorithms do not work well in coastal regions due to interference from colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) absorption.