Inherent Optical Properties as derived from aircraft hyperspectral radiometric data in the Ligurian Sea in March 2009

Inherent Optical Properties (IOPs) of the water provide information in a variety of field including: penetration depth (bathymetry), phytoplankton ecology and naval applications. Knowledge of IOPs and their changes in time can be used to study oceanographic processes, such as river discharge, surface circulation patterns and sediment transports. Although field measurements have been made in the Ligurian, they are insufficient to analyse space-time variation, thus, rapid and accurate estimation of IOPs is important. In this study, three semi-analytical/quasi-analytical ocean colour models to retrieve the IOPs (phytoplankton, colour dissolved mater absorption and scattering of particles) were tested and tuned on the in situ data acquired during the BP09 campaign in March 2009. High resolution maps of phytoplankton absorption and colour dissolved mater absorption were produced for the area covered by the airplane track. The correlations between the total pigments or total chlorophyll and the best radiance ratios are also explored.