Field detection of chlorophyll-a concentration in the sea surface layer by an airborne oceanographic lidar

An airborne oceanographic lidar, with a frequency-tripled Q-switched Nd: YAG laser of 355 nm, has been designed to measure chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration in the sea surface layer by the Ocean Remote Sensing Institute, OUC. The field experiment was carried out in the bay which is located south of the Liaodong Peninsula on the 10th of September 2005. After the flight, the raw data were processed and analyzed by the fluorescence-to-Raman ratio method with seawater attenuation coefficients calculated from signal profiles. The results of Chl-a concentration measurements by lidar are shown. The measurements in clear sea water were also compared with those of Chl-a concentration by a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS).