OC4-SO: A New Chlorophyll- a Algorithm for the Western Antarctic Peninsula Using Multi-Sensor Satellite Data

Chlorophyll- a (Chl- a ) underestimation by global satellite algorithms in the Southern Ocean has long been reported, reducing their accuracy, and limiting the potential for evaluating phytoplankton biomass. As a result, several regional Chl- a algorithms have been proposed. The present work aims at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote Sensing
Main Authors: Afonso Ferreira, Ana C. Brito, Carlos R. B. Mendes, Vanda Brotas, Raul R. Costa, Catarina V. Guerreiro, Carolina Sá, Thomas Jackson
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022
Subjects:
ocean colour
Chl- a
Antarctic Peninsula
OC-CCI
phytoplankton
Southern Ocean
Science
Q
Antarctic
Antarc*
Sea ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14051052
https://doaj.org/article/c0b0e8d2b3ac49f48cb03c5c4b028ddd
Description
Summary:Chlorophyll- a (Chl- a ) underestimation by global satellite algorithms in the Southern Ocean has long been reported, reducing their accuracy, and limiting the potential for evaluating phytoplankton biomass. As a result, several regional Chl- a algorithms have been proposed. The present work aims at assessing the performance of both global and regional satellite algorithms that are currently available for the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and investigate which factors are contributing to the underestimation of Chl- a . Our study indicates that a global algorithm, on average, underestimates in-situ Chl- a by ~59%, although underestimation was only observed for waters with Chl- a > 0.5 mg m −3 . In high Chl- a waters (>1 mg m −3 ), Chl- a underestimation rose to nearly 80%. Contrary to previous studies, no clear link was found between Chl- a underestimation and the pigment packaging effect, nor with the phytoplankton community composition and sea ice contamination. Based on multi-sensor satellite data and the most comprehensive in-situ dataset ever collected from the WAP, a new, more accurate satellite Chl- a algorithm is proposed: the OC4-SO. The OC4-SO has great potential to become an important tool not only for the ocean colour community, but also for an effective monitoring of the phytoplankton communities in a climatically sensitive region where in-situ data are scarce.

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