Ocean chlorophyll studies from a U‐2 aircraft platform

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Abstract
Chlorophyll gradient maps of large ocean areas were generated from U‐2/OCS data obtained over test sites in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. The delineation of oceanic features using the upward radiant intensity relies on an analysis method which presupposes that radiation backscattered from the atmosphere and the ocean surface can be properly modeled by using a measurement made at 778 nm. The calculation of atmospheric radiance was performed by using a method developed by J. V. Dave. An estimation of the chlorophyll concentration is performed by properly ratioing radiances measured at 472 and 548 nm after removing the atmoshperic effects. The correlation between the remotely sensed data and then situ surface chlorophyll measurements has been validated in two sets of data. The results show that the correlation between the in situ measured chlorophyll and the derived quantity is a negative exponential function, and the correlation coefficient was calculated to be −0.965.