The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most productive waters along the US east coast region. Primary production plays important roles as the basis of marine food webs and a mediator of carbon flux in the marine ecosystem. Model studies based on the ocean color satellite data overcome temporal and spatial restrictions of field measurements in estimating ocean primary productions. However, there are difficulties in quantifying the primary production in the turbid coastal waters because of uncertainties of the satellite products due to not only bio-optical algorithms but also the failure of atmospheric correction. In addition, current primary production models are suitable for the open ocean. Thus it would be needed to develop a local primary production algorithm.
In this study, we applied a current primary production model to the Chesapeake Bay region using the MODIS-Aqua ocean color products derived from the SWIR atmospheric correction algorithm, and compared results with those from the MODIS standard ocean color products. We demonstrate improved ocean primary production data using the SWIR algorithm in the turbid coastal waters. In addition, large data sets of in-situ water quality and living resource measurements are used to develop a local satellite-based primary production model for the Chesapeake Bay, as well as to be compared with the satellite-derived primary production.
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