Verification and Application of a Bio-optical Algorithm for Lake Michigan Using SeaWiFS: a 7-year Inter-annual Analysis

An algorithm to retrieve chlorophyll, dissolved organic carbon, and suspended minerals from Great Lakes satellite data

“…Bukata et al (1995) determined through simultaneous optical and in situ measurements on Lake Ontario that in the Great Lakes the other two CPAs in addition to chl are cdom and sm. A principal component analysis reported by Shuchman et al (2006) further confirmed Bukata supposition that chl, cdom, and sm generate the color of the Great lakes observed from space.…”

“…Pixels in optically shallow water (reflected light from the lake bottom) are also discarded during the retrieval process. Unlike the original algorithm used in the previous Lake Michigan Study (Shuchman et al, 2006) the CPA-A algorithm does not use neural net techniques for generation of the initial starting point of the retrieval process.…”

“…As light travels through the water column it interacts with both molecules and particles that comprise the chlorophyll (chl), colored dissolved organic matter (cdom) and inorganic suspended minerals (sm) resulting in alterations of the upwelling radiative flux (Pozdnyakov and Grassel, 2003). Thus the backscattered flux emerging from beneath the water surface contains information about the optical properties of the water column which when observed over time provides insight into the dynamic processes of the Great Lakes (Shuchman et al, 2006).…”

Assessing the application of SeaWiFS ocean color algorithms to Lake Erie

“…The approach of developing and applying a regional algorithm has been utilized in previous studies of chlorophyll a distributions within the Great Lakes (Budd and Warrington, 2004;Shuchman et al, 2006). For example, Li et al (2004) derived regional algorithms and analyzed their performance in order to recommend approaches for improving satellite-based chlorophyll a retrievals for Lake Superior.…”

“…Ocean color sensors have however been successfully used in North American Great Lakes. For example, Shuchman et al (2006) derived a 7-year time series of chlorophyll a for Lake Michigan using observations from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-ofview Sensor (SeaWiFS). Kerfoot et al (2008) used both SeaWiFS and the MOderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to detect intra-seasonal variations in near-surface chlorophyll a in southern Lake Michigan.…”