Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Montes-Hugo, Martin A.
• Mohammadpour, Gholamreza

Titel

Satellite-derived suspended particulates in the Saint Lawrence Estuary: uncertainties due to bottom effects

Ist Teil von

• Canadian journal of remote sensing, 2013-10, Vol.39 (5), p.444-454

Ort / Verlag

Taylor & Francis

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Taylor & Francis

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Historical regional budgets of suspended particulate matter (SPM) in surface waters (i.e., 0-20 m depth) of the St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) are not very accurate because of the lack of in situ measurements. The aim of this study was to improve the accuracy of SPM budgets in the SLE based on spaceborne ocean color measurements by investigating one kind of uncertainty on satellite-derived SPM concentration and related with the influence of the bottom depth and (or) bottom reflectivity (hereafter bottom effects) on water-leaving radiance. Theoretical results suggest that bias on optically derived SPM concentration due to bottom effects is greater in the lower estuary and can be up to 36.6% when the water depth is ≤10 m, sediments are dominated by sand, and water turbidity is relatively low (beam attenuation coefficient <1 m −1 ). Sea-Viewing Wide Field of view Sensor measurements and radiative transfer simulations suggest that bottom effects may introduce an uncertainty of 3.4% or 1.1 × 10 3 tonnes on 1 m vertically integrated SPM mass over the whole estuary. This error increases (up to 14.5% or 2.9 × 10 3 tonnes) when optically shallow areas were excluded from the regional SPM budget analysis.