Generation of an operational algorithm to retrieve chlorophyll, dissolved organic carbon, and suspended minerals from satellite data of the Great Lakes

A set of algorithms have been developed for the five Great Lake that utilizes SeaWifs, MODIS, or MERIS satellite data to estimate Chlorophyll (chl), dissolved organic carbon (doc), and suspended minerals (sm), the three primary Color Producing Agents (CPAs). The algorithms utilize a specific hydro-optical (HO) model for each lake. The HO models provide absorption functions for all three CPA components as well as backscatter relationships for the chl, and sm and were generated using near surface optical data collected with in situ water chemistry measurements. These in situ optical data are housed in a geospatial data base and will be made available via a web portal to support other Great lakes investigations. These new algorithms provided more accurate chl values then those obtained using the standard OC3 NASA MODIS retrieval when compared to the EPA and other in situ cruise observations, as well as providing the additional information on doc and sm. The suite of atmospheric correction algorithms for MODIS was also evaluated. In general the standard NASA algorithm does an adequate correction all of the time