Bio-optical relationship of Case I waters: The difference between the low- and mid-latitude waters and the Southern Ocean

Both historic and currently operational chlorophyll algorithms of the satellite-borne ocean color sensors, such as SeaWiFS, were evaluated for in situ spectral radiation and chlorophyll data in some Case I waters, including the waters in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean. Chlorophyll a concentration of the data set (n = 73) ranged from 0.04 to 1.01 mg m-3. The algorithms had higher accuracy for the low- and mid-latitude waters (RMSE: 0.163-0.253), specifically the most recently developed algorithms of OCTS and SeaWiFS showed 0.163 and 0.170 of Root Mean Square Errors, respectively. However, these algorithms had large errors (0.422-0.621) for the Southern Ocean data set and underestimated the surface chlorophyll by more than a factor of 2.6. The absorption coefficients in the blue spectral region retrieved from remote sensing reflectance varied in a nonlinear manner with chlorophyll a concentration, and the value in the Southern Ocean was significantly lower than that in the low- and mid-latitude waters for each chlorophyll a concentration. The underestimation of chlorophyll a concentration in the Southern Ocean with these algorithms was caused by the lower specific absorption coefficient in the region compared with the low- and mid-latitude waters under the same chlorophyll a concentration.