Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS- Aqua) Chlorophyll-a Concentration 2002 - Present

• Main Authors: P. Jeremy Werdell, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2014
• Subjects: Arctic Report Card 2020; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/MODIS_OC.2014.0

This algorithm returns the near-surface concentration of chlorophyll-a (chlor_a) in mg m-3, calculated using an empirical relationship derived from in situ measurements of chlor_a and blue-to-green band ratios of in situ remote sensing reflectances (Rrs). Implementation is contingent on the availability three or more sensor bands spanning the 440 - 570 nm spectral regime. The algorithm is applicable to all current ocean color sensors. The chlor_a product is included as part of the standard Level-2 OC product suite and the Level-3 CHL product suite. The current implementation for the default chlorophyll algorithm (chlor_a) employs the standard OC3/OC4 (OCx) band ratio algorithm merged with the color index (CI) of Hu et al. (2012). As described in that paper, this refinement is restricted to relatively clear water, and the general impact is to reduce artifacts and biases in clear-water chlorophyll retrievals due to residual glint, stray light, atmospheric correction errors, and white or spectrally-linear bias errors in Rrs. As implemented, the algorithm diverges slightly from what was published in Hu et al. (2012) in that the transition between CI and OCx now occurs at 0.15 less than CI less than 0.2 mg/m3 to ensure a smooth transition. Hu, C., Lee, Z., and Franz, B. (2012). Chlorophyll a algorithms for oligotrophic oceans: A novel approach based on three-band reflectance difference. Journal of Geophysical Research, 117(C1). doi:10.1029/2011jc007395