Apparent Optical Properties (AOPs) measured from the ocean depend on the type and composition of materials in the water (e.g., phytoplankton, colored dissolved organic material, detritus, and bubbles), as well as the environmental lighting conditions (e.g., sun angle, sensor viewing angle, and atmospheric composition). Here, we validate the spectral Remote Sensing Reflectance (Rrs), which is the amount of light leaving the sea surface towards the sensor normalized by the light reaching the sea surface from the entire upward hemisphere. For PACE-OCI, Rrs is derived through a series of quality control and atmospheric correction protocols.

Note: Our initial efforts are multispectral, as AERONET-OC outputs data at eight nominal wavelengths based on current instrumentation. We extrapolate these measurements to hyperspectral matchups as an initial projected comparison against the PACE OCI sensor.