Water color remote sensing requires accurate atmospheric correction but this remains a significant challenge in highly turbid waters. In this respect, the shortwave infrared (SWIR) band-based atmospheric correction approach has proven advantageous when applied to the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Aqua satellite. However, even so, uncertainties affect its accuracy. We performed a regional vicarious calibration of the MODIS-Aqua SWIR (1240, 2130)-based atmospheric correction using in situ water surface reflectance data measured during different seasons in Lake Taihu, a highly turbid lake. We then verified the accuracy of the (1240, 2130)-based atmospheric correction approach using these results; good results were obtained for the remote sensing reflectance retrievals at the 555, 645, and 859 nm, with average relative errors of 15%, 14%, and 22%, respectively, and no significant bias. Comparisons with the (1240, 2130)-based iterative approach and (1640, 2130)-based approach showed that the vicarious calibrated (1240, 2130)-based approach has the best accuracy and robustness. Thus, it is applicable to the highly turbid Lake Taihu. It may also be applicable to other highly turbid inland waters with similar optical and aerosol optical properties above water, but such applications will require further validation. two main categories. The first attempts to develop models to assess the water-leaving radiance in NIR bands mainly using an iterative approach [3][4][5][6][7]. The second approach uses atmospheric information derived from adjacent clear water and interpolates the corrections to the turbid water [8]. These improved approaches usually work well in moderately turbid waters but are not necessarily valid for highly turbid waters since certain waters saturate the NIR bands, rendering these "black NIR"-based approaches completely unusable.Wang and Shi [9-11] proposed a "black shortwave infrared (SWIR)"-based approach, which assumes that the water-leaving radiance in the SWIR bands is zero and uses two SWIR bands to replace the two NIR bands present in the original GW94 approach. Due to the strong absorption at the SWIR wavelengths from pure water [12], the water-leaving radiance in the SWIR wavelength for even highly turbid water tends to be zero. Therefore, the SWIR-based atmospheric correction approach can be used for highly turbid waters. Previous studies have already verified this approach with its application to MODIS-Aqua data in several areas with highly turbid water, including the East China Sea and eastern coast of the U.S.A. [9,10,13,14]. These studies used two SWIR bands at 1240 and 2130 nm because 14 out of the 20 detectors for the original 500 m resolution 1640 nm band on the MODIS-Aqua are inoperable. However, in certain highly turbid waters, such as areas in Lake Taihu, we cannot neglect the water-leaving radiance at the 1240 nm band and the original (1240, 2130) SWIR-based atmospheric correction approach will overestimate aerosol scattering and underestimate the wate...