Satellite ocean color and aerosol validation at Martha´s Vineyard Coastal Observatory

Optical complexity in both the water and the overlying atmosphere often leads to error in remotely-sensed ocean color products in the coastal zone. A known but poorly understood error source is the near shore atmospheric correction algorithm. Dedicated to the coastal ocean color validation, an automatic above-water radiance measurement system, named the SeaWiFS Photometer Revision for Incident Surface Measurements (SeaPRISM) prototyped at the Acqua Alta Oceanographic Tower in the north Adriatic sea [1], has been deployed at the Air-Sea Interaction Tower of Martha´s Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO) since February 2004. This paper describes the MVCO ocean color validation program and present a preliminary assessment of marine and atmospheric products from the satellite ocean color sensor MODIS on the AQUA satellite using SeaPRISM observations. Assessment focuses on normalized water-leaving radiance and aerosol optical properties with nearly-simultaneous in situ and satellite retrievals (match-ups). Two years of observation indicate the value of this SeaPRISM measurement station to coastal satellite ocean color validation efforts