Adjusting Worldview-3 Spectral Radiances for High Resolution Coastal Ocean Color Application

We evaluate the use of the Worldview-3 multispectral high spatial resolution channel suite for suitable ocean color products in variable coastal and inland waters. Ocean color remote sensing continues to be a vital tool for the research and monitoring of coastal environments. Worldview-3 multispectral channels consist of 6 visible (426, 481, 545, 604, 660, 723 nm) and 2 near-infrared (831, 905 nm) broad channels (40-118nm wide). The additional near-infrared channels permit an approach to perform atmospheric correction that is currently accepted for operational polar-orbiting ocean color satellites: VIIRS (SNPP and NOAA-20), Sentinel 3 (OLCI A and B), MODIS (Aqua) and GCOM-C (SGLI). Products generated using the 1.24 meter spatial resolution of Worldview-3 reveal the subtle changes within fine-scale coastal ocean features not available in products from coarser spatial resolution sensors. The Naval Research Laboratory has established an Automated Processing System (APS) to process current ocean color satellites from top of atmosphere radiances (L1B) to normalized water leaving radiances (nLw), and then derive inversion products, such as bio-optical properties. The end-to-end processing for each of the ocean color sensors includes applying up-to-date top of atmosphere vicarious calibration gains, atmospheric correction and deriving of ocean color products. The goal of this study is to: We evaluate the use of the Worldview-3 multispectral high spatial resolution channel suite for suitable ocean color products in variable coastal and inland waters. Ocean color remote sensing continues to be a vital tool for the research and monitoring of coastal environments. Worldview-3 multispectral channels consist of 6 visible (426, 481, 545, 604, 660, 723 nm) and 2 near-infrared (831, 905 nm) broad channels (40-118nm wide). The additional near-infrared channels permit an approach to perform atmospheric correction that is currently accepted for operational polar-orbiting ocean color satellites: VIIRS (SNPP and NOAA-20), Sentinel 3 (OLCI A and B), MODIS (Aqua) and GCOM-C (SGLI). Products generated using the 1.24 meter spatial resolution of Worldview-3 reveal the subtle changes within fine-scale coastal ocean features not available in products from coarser spatial resolution sensors. The Naval Research Laboratory has established an Automated Processing System (APS) to process current ocean color satellites from top of atmosphere radiances (L1B) to normalized water leaving radiances (nLw), and then derive inversion products, such as bio-optical properties. The end-to-end processing for each of the ocean color sensors includes applying up-to-date top of atmosphere vicarious calibration gains, atmospheric correction and deriving of ocean color products. The goal of this study is to: (1) establish a vicarious calibration using stable blue ocean waters and gauge global applicability, (2) assess atmospheric correction (Gordon & Wang 2 NIR Channel) currently used for present-day ocean color sensors (polar and geostationary) for Worldview-3, (3) assess the capability of Worldview-3 to accurately yield ocean color products and (4) compare derived products to present-day ocean color sensors. Results reveal that Worldview-3 produces improved coastal ocean color products using standard ocean color calibration, atmospheric correction and suitable algorithms.