Earthdata Forum

Hello,

What are the uncertainties associated with the chlor_a (OCI) product for MODIS and VIIRS?
I could not find them in the references of the web page of that product: https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/cms/atbd/chlor_a

Thank you,
Nils

Nils,

There is no simple answer and any you may find will be incomplete.  The references for the algorithm do include an assessment of the algorithm performance (Hu et al, 2012 doi:10.1029/2011JC007395; O'Reilly et al., 1998 doi: 10.1029/98JC02160.) as well as the algorithm assessments for each mission (https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/atbd/chlor_a/#sec_4)

The former suffers from a lack of mission specificity, the later from a limited validation source data set.  Neither considers the individual instrument measurement uncertainties (although these are somewhat accounted for in the validation analyses).

Deriving credible uncertainties for ocean color remote sensing products is still an area of active research, and NASA has funded research into this open question (and I am sure will continue to do so).

Regards,
Sean

Thank you very much for the pointers, Sean.
Best,
Nils