A regional assessment of OLCI data products

• Published in: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters
• Main Authors: ZIBORDI Giuseppe, MELIN Frederic, BERTHON Jean-Francois
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC 2018
• Subjects: Aerosol Robotic Network
• Online Access: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC111893; https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8425631; https://doi.org/10.1109/LGRS.2018.2849329

This letter summarizes a regional assessment of radiometric data products from the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument operated onboard Sentinel-3A. The assessment is supported by in situ reference measurements from the Ocean Colour component of the Aerosol Robotic Network and the Bio-optical mapping of Marine Properties Program. Results indicate a systematic underestimate of the water-leaving radiance at the blue and red spectral bands. Conversely, the aerosol optical depth at 865 nm exhibits overestimate, while the Ångström exponent shows a narrow distribution of values confined below a maximum of approximately 1.7. These findings suggest difficulty in separating water and atmospheric radiance contributions, which results in a poor determination of aerosol load and type and, consequently, an overestimate of atmospheric effects. JRC.D.2 - Water and Marine Resources