DETECTION OF PHYTOPLANKTON PIGMENTS FROM OCEAN COLOR - IMPROVED ALGORITHMS

Passive ocean-color data at 32 wavelengths in the visible domain and l aser-induced fluorescence line heights of chlorophyll and phycoerythri n, measured simultaneously from an aircraft in the New York Bight area , are used to examine the problem of developing algorithms for pigment retrieval from ocean-color data that would be capable of distinguishi ng between chlorophyll and phycoerythrin. Using factor analysis, it is shown that it is indeed possible to develop such algorithms. Furtherm ore, the wavelengths used in the algorithms can be reduced from 32 to 6 (similar to the SeaWiFS channels) without much loss in information. These multiwavelength algorithms yield significantly higher correlatio n coefficients for chlorophyll compared with the conventional blue-gre en ratio used for retrieval of this pigment. The Coastal Zone Color Sc anner wavelengths appear to be inadequate for quantitative retrieval o f the phycoerythrin signal.