The impact of clouds on SeaWiFS derived water quality

Atmospheric correction and subsequent chlorophyll detection algorithms via the SeaWiFS system were designed for use over the world´s oceans. The algorithms tend to fail when used on data taken over non-open ocean waters such as the Laurentian Great Lakes. Two primary reasons for the failure have been identified as higher suspended minerals in the Great Lakes than in the oceans and normally higher cloud cover over the Great Lakes. A characterization of the impact of clouds on the radiance reaching remote sensing platforms has been performed and is reported. The impact takes two forms: (1) introduction of error in the atmospheric removal and (2) erroneous bias in the data even after atmospheric removal. From this characterization, the impact on the calculated chlorophyll content determined by current algorithms is derived