Remote sensing of particulate concentrations in water

Determination of residual radiance is essential in remote sensing measurements of suspended solids in the absence of real-time ground-truth data. We present some typical background corrections for Lake Superior and determine the spectral distribution of the residual radiance from three major categories of turbidity in the lake. The results tested with Landsat 2 digital tape data indicate that for large bodies of water general information on atmospheric scattering, water clarity, and optical properties of suspended solids enables one to estimate the concentrations of particulates to within +/-0.5 mg/liter in the absence of real-time ground-truth data.