Validation of Terra-MODIS phytoplankton chlorophyll fluorescence line height

This paper was published in Applied Optics and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ao/issue.cfm?volume=42&issue=15. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law.The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra spacecraft contains spectral bands that allow retrieval of solar-induced phytoplankton chlorophyll fluorescence emission radiance. Concurrent airborne laser-induced (and water-Raman normalized) phytoplankton chlorophyll fluorescence data is used to successfully validate the MODIS chlorophyll fluorescence line height (FLH) retrievals within Gulf Stream, continental slope, shelf, and coastal waters of the Middle Atlantic Bight portion of the western North Atlantic Ocean for 11 March 2002. Over the entire ~480-km flight line a correlation coefficient of r² = 0.85 results from regression of the airborne laser data against the MODIS FLH. It is also shown that the MODIS FLH product is not influenced by blue-absorbing chromophoric dissolved organic matter absorption. These regional results strongly suggest that the FLH methodology is equally valid within similar oceanic provinces of the global oceans