Sampling Fluorescence Reflectance from Ocean Color Satellite Imagery using Fluorescence Line Height (FLH) Algorithm

Satellite monitoring of open ocean and coastal areas is vital to understand and observe the Earth’s ecosystem and its evolution, especially in relation to climate change. The abundance of the phytoplankton in the ocean is characterized by the concentration of the chlorophyll-a pigment, which strongly absorbs light in the blue and red part of the spectra, much less in the green, and thus can be traced by the satellite sensors. The emission of the absorbed light by phytoplankton at a longer wavelength is defined as chlorophyll fluorescence. It provides important additional information on the phytoplankton and chlorophyll concentration.  This study is focused on the analysis of the fluorescence reflectance, derived from MODIS satellite observations at New York Harbor and Long Island Sound where some in situ measurements are available for validation. We want to observe the relationship between the normalized fluorescence line height (nFLH) and chlorophyll concentration in this region over different seasons with the goal of possible improvements of the interpretation of the nFLH product, especially in the coastal waters.