An algorithm for determining the radiance reflected from the rough sea surface using MODIS-N satellite radiometer data

A new algorithm is suggested for determining the radiance B_r (θ, φ) reflected from the rough sea surface. The knowledge of B_r(θ, φ) is needed for excluding the reflected solar radiation from the signal at the space receiver. Information on the reflected radiance is also required when estimating the state of the sea surface from space. The information (on reflected radiance) is important for problems such as estimating the chlorophyll concentration in sea water. The suggested algorithm was constructed based on direct measurements of the radiance coefficient ρ published in V. G. Akimov ei al. (1993) and J. A Shaw et al. (1997). The experimental results show that the slope distribution of sea surface elements depends not only on the wind speed near the sea surface but also on the stability of the lower part of the marine atmospheric boundary layer. It is shown that the failure to account for this effect causes an error of ±30% when estimating B_r(θ, φ)