PROGRESS ON A NEW ANALYTICAL ALGORITHM TO RETRIEVE INHERENT OPTICAL PROPERTIES FROM OCEAN COLOR REMOTE SENSING

Approximations are vital to interpret ocean color remote sensing since it is not possible to analytically invert the full the radiative transfer (RT) equation. RT approximations to date have almost exclusively relied on relating [b(b) / (a + b(b))] to remote sensing reflectance (r(RS)). This shifts uncertainty for several parameters associated with viewing geometry and the volume scattering function into the proportionality. Zaneveld [1] developed a RT approximation that explicitly incorporates these aspects in a fully analytical relationship, but it has not been rigorously evaluated to date. We rework the Zaneveld approximation so that rRS is only dependent on bb and a, while retaining explicit dependencies on the shape of the volume scattering function and viewing geometry. The algorithm is fully spectral. We also, for the first time, demonstrate inversion of this algorithm to derive inherent optical properties (IOPs) backscattering bb and absorption a. The algorithm shows promise for a new operational ocean color retrieval algorithm.