Uncertainty assessment of unattended above-water radiometric data collection from research vessels with the Dynamic Above-water Radiance (L) and Irradiance (E) Collector (DALEC)

Opt Express. 2021 Feb 1;29(3):4607-4631. doi: 10.1364/OE.412022.

Abstract

We used above- and below-water radiometry measurements collected during a research voyage in the eastern Indian Ocean to assess uncertainties in deriving the remote sensing reflectance, Rrs, from unattended above-water radiometric data collection with the In-Situ Marine Optics Pty. Ltd. (IMO) Dynamic Above-water Radiance (L) and Irradiance (E) Collector (DALEC). To achieve this, the Rrs values derived from using the latest version of this hyperspectral radiometer were compared to values obtained from two in-water profiling radiometer systems of rather general use in the ocean optics research community, i.e., the Biospherical Instruments Inc. Compact Optical Profiling System (C-OPS) and the Seabird HyperPro II. Our results show that unattended, carefully quality-controlled, DALEC measurements provide Rrs for wavelengths < 600 nm that match those derived from the in-water systems with no bias and a dispersion of about 8%, provided that the appropriate technique is used to quantify the contribution of sky light reflection to the measured signal. The dispersion is larger (25-50%) for red bands, which is expected for clear oligotrophic waters as encountered during the voyage, where ∼2 10-5 < Rrs < ∼2 10-4 sr-1. For comparison, the two in-water systems provided Rrs in agreement within 4% for wavelengths < 600 nm.