Coastal optical properties estimated from airborne sensors: Reply to the comments by Hu and Carder

Gould and Arnone [Remote Sens. Environ. 61 (1997) 290] characterized the spatial and temporal variability of inherent optical properties (water absorption and scattering coefficients) in a coastal region using in situ shipboard and moored optical data, and high-resolution aircraft ocean color imagery. Following atmospheric correction of the aircraft imagery, they applied a bio-optical model [J. Geophys. Res. 104 (C3) (1999) 5403] to the image data to produce surface maps of absorption and scattering coefficients. The results from the model were compared with in situ measurements and adjustments were made to two model parameters to force the model results to more closely match the in situ measurements. Hu and Carder [Remote Sens. Environ. (2001)] raise questions concerning (a) the atmospheric correction applied to the aircraft data and (b) the reason for adjusting the parameters of the bio-optical model. Here we respond to their comments.