Estimation of Particulate Backscattering Coefficient in Turbid Inland Water Using Sentinel 3A-OLCI Image

The particulate backscattering coefficient (b(bp)) plays an important role in the underwater light field. However, it is difficult to accurately estimate b(bp)(lambda) in turbid inland water with complex optical properties. To accurately estimate the backscattering coefficients in inland water, a simple classification method based on the shape of remote sensing reflectance was first proposed to distinguish two water types (i.e., water type 1 and water type 2) with different backscattering characteristics. Then, trigonometric functions were developed to simulate the backscattering coefficients at all bands in water type 1 and the backscattering coefficients in the visible band of water type 2, whereas a linear function was built to estimate the backscattering coefficients in the near-infrared band of water type 2. The proposed algorithm was compared with four state-of-the-art methods and validated by an independently measured dataset of three lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in 2020. The results showed that the proposed algorithm performed well in inland waters, with all mean absolute percentage errors < 40% and root-mean-square errors < 0.25 m(-1). Finally, the algorithm was applied to Ocean and Land Color Instrument images from 2016 to 2020 in Lake Taihu and Lake Hongze. It was found that the backscattering coefficients in Lake Taihu and Lake Hongze showed opposite seasonal variation trends, and the b(bp)(676) in Lake Hongze began to decrease since 2017, whereas no obvious interannual variation was observed in Taihu Lake in recent five years.

Automated summary

A simple classification method was proposed to distinguish two water types with different backscattering characteristics in turbid inland water. Trigonometric functions were developed to simulate the backscattering coefficients at all bands in one water type and in the visible band of the other type, showing satisfactory performance in inland waters.