Abstract
The success of the Coastal Zone Color Scanner'-3(CZCS) in measuring the concentration of phytoplankton pigments in the world oceans, has led to several proposals for follow-on systems.4-6 Although all of the proposed systems have increased radiometric sensitivity, the methodology for determining the actual engineering specifications has never been published. In this paper, the radiometric requirements for ocean color instruments in general are developed from a knowledge of the inherent accuracies of the atmospheric correction and bio-optical algorithms used to estimate the pigment concentration from the sensor-measured spectral radiance. The issues to be examined include (1) the noise equivalent radiance, (2) the saturation radiance, (3) polarization sensitivity, and (4) calibration and stability. It is assumed that the instrument senses the ocean in six spectral bands: 443, 500, 560, 665, 765, and 865 nm. The last three bands are used for atmospheric correction of the first three bands, which are then used to estimate the pigment concentration.© (1988) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.