Global Estimation of Suspended Particulate Matter From Satellite Ocean Color Imagery Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans

The suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentration (unit: mg l−1) in surface waters is an essential measure of water quality and clarity. Satellite remote sensing provides a powerful tool to derive the SPM with synoptic and repeat coverage. In this study, we developed a new global SPM algorithm utilizing the remote sensing reflectance (Rrs(λ)) at near-infrared (NIR), red, green, and blue bands (NIR-RGB) as input. The evaluations showed that the NIR-RGB algorithm could predict SPM with the median absolute percentage difference of ∼35%–39% over a wide range from ∼0.01 to >2,000 mg l−1.