Determining particulate organic carbon (POC) using multispectral remote sensing data of GOCI: preliminary study

Abstract

To greatly increase the spatial and temporal resolution for studying carbon dynamics in the marine environment, we have developed remote sensing algorithms for particulate organic carbon (POC) by matching in-situ POC measurements with matching GeostationaryOcean Color Imager (GOCI) remote sensing refl ectance. Data on total particulate matter (PM) as well as POC collected from various oceanic cruises as part of the development of the fi rst GOCI study were used to test algorithms across a range of environments from low %POC coastal waters to high %POC open ocean waters. Finding that the remote-sensing refl ectance clearly exhibited a peak shift from blue to green wavelengths with increasing POC concentration, we developed POC algorithm which uses the maximum band ratio of all available blue-to-green wavelengths, and provides a very robust estimate over a wide range of POC and PM concentrations.