In situ phytoplankton absorption, fluorescence emission, and particulate backscattering spectra determined from reflectance

An inverse model was developed to extract the absorption and scattering (elastic and inelastic) properties of oceanic constituents from surface spectral reflectance measurements. In particular, phytoplankton spectral absorption coefficients, solar‐stimulated chlorophyll a fluorescence spectra, and particle backscattering spectra were modeled. The model was tested on 35 reflectance spectra obtained from irradiance measurements in optically diverse ocean waters (0.07 to 25.35 mg m −3 range in surface chlorophyll a concentrations). The universality of the model was demonstrated by the accurate estimation of the spectral phytoplankton absorption coefficients over a range of 3 orders of magnitude (ρ = 0.94 at 500 nm). Under most oceanic conditions (chlorophyll a <3 mg m −3 ) the percent difference between measured and modeled phytoplankton absorption coefficients was <35%. Spectral variations in measured phytoplankton absorption spectra were well predicted by the inverse model. Modeled volume fluorescence was weakly correlated with measured chl a ; fluorescence quantum yield varied from 0.008 to 0.09 as a function of environment and incident irradiance. Modeled particle backscattering coefficients were linearly related to total particle cross section over a twentyfold range in backscattering coefficients (ρ = 0.996, n = 12).