Determination of the remote-sensing reflectance from above-water measurements with the "3C model": a further assessment

The Three-Component Reflectance Model (3C) was primarily developed to improve the determination of the remote-sensing reflectance (R-rs) from above-water radiometric hyperspectral measurements performed during sub-optimal conditions (i.e., cloudy sky, variable viewing geometry, high glint perturbations, low illumination conditions). In view of further validating the model and showing its broad range of uses, this work presents the application of 3C to above-water radiometry data collected in oceanic and coastal waters with a variety of measurement conditions. R-rs derived from measurements performed during optimal and slightly sub-optimal conditions exhibit equivalence with R-rs obtained with an established above-water method that is commonly used to support ocean color validation activities. Additionally, the study shows that 3C can still provide relevant R-rs retrievals from field data characterized by low-light illumination, high glint perturbations and variable measurement geometries, for which the established method cannot be confidently applied. Finally, it is shown that the optimization residual returned by the 3C full-spectrum inversion procedure can be a potential relative indicator to assess the quality of derived R-rs. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement