ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 356364

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ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

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Evaluation of a three-band model for estimating chlorophyll-a concentration in

tidal reaches of the Pearl River Estuary, China
Shuisen Chen a, , Ligang Fang a,b , Hongli Li b , Weiqi Chen c , Wenrui Huang d,e
a

Guangdong Open Lab. of Geospatial Information Technology and Application, Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou 510070, China

Department of Computer Engineering, Suzhou Vocational University, Suzhou 215104, China

Department of Geography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA

Department of Civil Engineering, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA

Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China

article

info

Article history:
Received 5 May 2010
Received in revised form
4 January 2011
Accepted 12 January 2011
Available online 8 February 2011
Keywords:
Chlorophyll-a
Three-band model
Evaluation
Pearl River Estuary
Hyperion remote sensing

abstract
Accurate assessment of phytoplankton chlorophyll-a (Chla) concentration in turbid waters by means of
remote sensing was challenging due to the optical complexity of turbid waters. Recently, a conceptual
model containing reflectance in three spectral bands in the red and near-infrared range of the spectrum
was suggested for retrieving Chla concentrations in turbid productive waters. The objective of this
paper was to evaluate the performance of this three-band model to estimate Chla concentration in
the Pearl River Estuary (PRE), China. Reflectance spectra of surface water and water samples were
collected concurrently. The samples contained variable Chla (4.8092.60 mg/m3 ) and total suspended
solids (0.455.2 mg/L dry wt). Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) absorption at 400 nm was
0.401.41 m1 ; turbidity ranged from 4 to 25 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units). The three-band
model was spectrally calibrated by iterative and least-square linear regression methods to select the
optimal spectral bands for the most accurate Chla estimation. Strong linear relationships (R2 = 0.81,
RMSE = 1.4 mg/m3 , N = 32) were established between measured Chla and the levels obtained from
the calibrated three-band model [R1 (684)R1 (690)] R(718), where R() was the reflectance at
wavelength . The calibrated three-band model was independently validated (R2 = 0.9521, RMSE =
6.44 mg/m3 , N = 16) and applied to retrieve Chla concentrations from the calibrated EO-1 Hyperion
reflectance data in the PRE on December 21, 2006. The EO-1 Hyperion-derived Chla concentrations were
further validated using synchronous in situ data collected on the same day (R2 = 0.64, RMSE = 2 mg/m3 ,
N = 9). The spatial tendency of Chla distribution mapping by Hyperion showed gradually increased
concentrations of Chla farther from the river mouths (although decreasing from east to west), which were
disturbed by the combination of river outlets and tidal current in Lingding Bay of the PRE. This observation
conformed to previous observations and studies, and could reasonably be explained by geographical
changes. Also, results indicated that the slope of the three-band regression line decreased as the Chla
concentration increased, resulting in the first sensitive band of the three-band model to move towards
short wavelengths. These findings validated the rationale behind the conceptual model and demonstrated
the robustness of this algorithm for Chla retrieval from in situ data and the Hyperion satellite sensor in
turbid estuarine waters of the PRE, China.
2011 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS). Published by
Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The use of spectral signals in the visible wavelengths in estuarine environments presented many difficulties due to the variety of optically active constituents present in estuarine waters.

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: css@gdas.ac.cn (S. Chen).

These constituents generally fell into three classes: Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM),
and chlorophyll pigments (Chla). Each class was characterized by
specific inherent optical properties (IOPs) related to its absorption
and scattering processes (Preisendorfer and Mobley, 1984). Existing algorithms for determining the water quality parameters in
open ocean waters were more robust and universal than those for
coastal waters, because coastal turbid productive waters were optically more heterogeneous and complex than open ocean waters.
This explained why spectral and spatial resolutions by satellites

0924-2716/$ see front matter 2011 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2011.01.004

S. Chen et al. / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 356364

357

Fig. 1. The study area of Pearl River Estuary (PRE) and field data-sampling stations: Samples for spectra, Chla, TSS, turbidity, and CDOM at 32 stations taken on 12/27/2007
and 12/31/2007, 17 locations in the Humen riverway (Nos. 1632), 15 locations in the ModaomenMacau riverway (Nos. 115), 16 sampling sites (rectangles) in the upstream
Modaomen riverway, and 10 sites (triangles) synchronous with acquisition of EO-1 Hyperion satellite imagery on 12/21/2006.

were often not fine enough to enable the development of algorithms that were as reliable as those for open ocean waters. For
this reason, most algorithms currently used for open ocean waters
could not be suitable for determining water constituents by remote
sensing in river estuary water. There had been discussion in the
literature on the problem of the inversion of TSS, CDOM, and Chla
based on in situ reflectance in the PRE (e.g., Yang and Chen (2007)).
Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the spectral properties of water constituents based on in situ spectral data and develop reliable
algorithms for retrieving the temporal and spatial distribution of
various water parameters in the PRE by remote sensing.
Accurate assessment of phytoplankton Chla concentration in
turbid waters by means of remote sensing was challenging due
to the optical complexity of turbid case II waters. In productive
turbid waters, absorption by dissolved organic matter, tripton, and
phytoplankton pigments in the blue spectral region overlapped
and prevented Chla estimation (Gitelson et al., 2007). In many
estuaries, tripton and CDOM dominated water column optics. For
example, phytoplankton accounted, on average, for about 5% of
vertical attenuation in San Francisco Bay (Cole and Cloern, 1987).
To retrieve Chla concentrations, one needs to isolate the Chla
absorption coefficient by subtracting the effects of TSS and CDOM.
Recently, a conceptual model containing reflectance in three
spectral bands in the red and near-infrared range of the spectrum
was suggested for retrieving Chla concentrations in turbid
productive waters. The model was calibrated and validated in
lakes, reservoirs, and coastal waters (DallOlmo et al., 2003).
However, the model had not been applied in Chinas coastal

waters, to say nothing of its application in satellite imagery. The

objective of this paper is to evaluate and calibrate this threeband model for estimating Chla concentration in the PRE of China
(as a representative of case II estuarine waters), to examine the
performance of the model by Hyperion remote sensing imagery,
and to investigate the slope change of the regression line when
applying different combinations of water-quality parameters.
2. Methods
2.1. Fieldwork
The field spectral measurements and sampling of surface
water in the study area were carried out from 10:30 to 15:00
on December 19, 2006 and December 27 and 31, 2007. Levels
for spectra, Chla, TSS, and CDOM from 48 locations sampled
on December 27, 2007 (Nos. 115), December 31, 2007 (Nos.
1632), and December 19, 2006 (16 sites identified by a rectangle
in Fig. 1) were measured and analyzed (Table 1). Accurate
positions for all sampling stations were recorded by a global
positioning system (RMS = 0.5 m), as shown in Fig. 1. Water
samples were collected in polypropylene bottles and refrigerated.
Samples were transported to a water quality-analysis laboratory
in Guangzhou approximately 10 h after field sampling. The entire
procedure, including sample collection, storing, and measurement,
was performed strictly in the Center for Water Environment
Monitoring of Pearl River (Guangzhou) according to the Technical
Specifications Requirements for Monitoring of Surface Water and

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S. Chen et al. / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 356364

Table 1
Dates and locations of field-water sampling in the PRE (including mean values and range of water-column conditions).
Date

Location

Number of samples

Chla

Turbidity

g400

TSS

19/12/2006
21/12/2006
27/12/2007
31/12/2007

Modaomen
Lingding bay
Nos. 115
Nos. 1632

16
10
15
17

17.60 (4.8092.60) mg/m3

18.7 (3120) NTU

0.72 (0.401.41) m1

40.8 (0.4220.7) mg/L

Waste Water of China (TSS, Chla; HJ/T 912002, Beijing: Chinese

Standard Press, 2001). The absorption coefficient of colored
dissolved organic matter (CDOM) was measured in the South China
Sea Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academies of Science
(Guangzhou) according to the terms of the Ocean Optics Protocols
Version 2.0 (CDOM absorption at 400 nm, g400 ) distributed by NASA
(Mitchell et al., 2000).
Chlorophyll-a concentrations of water samples were measured
by filtering at least 500 ml of the sample water through Whatman
GF/F filters. The trapped pigments were then extracted overnight,
in the dark, at a constant temperature of 5 C using 90% acetone.
The extracted supernatant was compared to known Chla standards
using a Turner Designs 10-AU Fluorometer. TSS was determined
by filtering samples onto 0.45 mm filters of known weight,
drying them, and measuring the weight gain due to sediment
concentration. Absorption by CDOM was measured first by filtering
samples with 25 mm Whatman GF/F glass-fiber filters, then
measuring the absorption spectrum of the filtrate. Quartz cells with
a path length of 10 cm were used in these measurements, with
distilled water as a reference (Chen et al., 2004).
Samples for spectra, Chla, TSS, turbidity, and CDOM at 32
different stations were collected on December 27, 2007 (Nos. 115)
and December 31, 2007 (Nos. 1632). There were 17 sampling
locations in the ShawanHumen riverway and 15 locations in the
ModaomenMacau waterway and nearby river mouth. Sixteen
samples from sites identified by a rectangle were collected on
December 19, 2006, in the upriver waters of the Modaomen
waterway. Ten samples from sites identified by triangles were
collected (and analyzed only for Chla, TSS, and CDOM) on
December 21, 2006 (within 20 min of EO-1 Hyperion satellite
overpass), synchronous with satellite imagery acquisition.
In the study, highly variable water-column conditions were
encountered (mean values and ranges, Table 1): TSS = 21.2
(0.455.2 mg/L dry wt), CDOM absorption at 400 nm = 0.92
(0.401.41 m1 ), turbidity = 11.3 (425 NTU), and Chla = 18.60
(4.8092.60 mg/m3 ). Spectral measurements at the waters
surface were carried out using an Analytical Spectral Devices
(ASD) FieldSpec PR, manufactured by the ASD Company (USA). The
instrument operates in bands ranging from 350 to 2500 nm, with
1 nm visible and 10 nm NIR wavelength resolutions. To reduce
the effect of the waters mirror reflection, we used an observation
angle method (Tang et al., 2004) and faced the boats side to the
sun when measuring to avoid shadows. The reflectance panel was
used instead of direct measurements of incident radiance. In the
spectral measurement, the observation azimuth angle was less
than 135 (the suns azimuth angle is considered as 0), and the
observation zenith angle was 45. At each station, three important
parameters were measured: radiance of water surface, skylight,
and reference board (reflectance of 30%). Integration time of the
instrument was defined as 172 ms, and 10 spectral curves were
continuously measured at one time. The spectral measurements
were synchronous with in situ water sample collection.
2.2. Remote sensing data
Hyperion imagery of the PRE was acquired at 10:37 (local
standard time) on December 21, 2006, in South China. The
instrument was on board the EO-1 satellite, which was launched

on November 21, 2000. Its imagery data were recorded in 16bit radiance values. Hyperion is the first Earth-orbiting imaging
spectrometer operating across the full solar-reflected spectrum,
collecting 196 unique calibrated spectral channels with spectral
coverage ranging from 426 to 2395 nm, and 10 nm sampling and
spectral response functions. The spatial sampling is 30 m with a
7.7 km imagery swath and 185 km length, which is well suited for
detecting and portraying complex spatial distributions of salinity
and other water-color constituents in a salt water intrusion region.
2.3. Spectral data processing
The surface reflectance of water included not only reflection
information for water, but also information on diffused sunlight
from the airwater interface to obtain pure reflectance information
for water. The in situ radiance of water was converted to remote
sensing reflectance by Eq. (1).
Rrs = p (LSW r Lsky )/ Lp

(1)

where p is the reflectance of the reference board, Lp is the radiance

of the reference board, LSW is the water radiance measured by
ASD, Lsky is information on diffused skylight (involving no water
information), and r is the skylight reflected by the airwater
interface. The value of r is usually between 2.1% and 5%, depending
on the suns position (0 , 0 ), the geometric conditions of
observation (v , v ), and wind speed and direction, as well as
the roughness degree of water surface. Because average wind
speed was less than 3 m/s, and the wind speed of most stations
was less than 5 m/s during field measurements of water spectra
(http://www.zswater.gov.cn/), the value of r was defined as 0.022
(Tang et al., 2004).
2.4. Imagery pre-processing
The acquired Hyperion imagery was pre-processed according
to the guide for Hyperion imagery pre-processing (http://eo1.
usgs.gov). The first step was to fix the bad lines of imagery. There
were a few bad Hyperion detectors in more than 60,000 detectors
(256 pixels 220 bands). Bad detectors were corrected through
newest-neighbor interpolation. The second step was to retrieve
water in the imagery. River and coastal water (investigation object)
reflectance was analyzed according to their spatial profiles (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2 represented the spatial profile of the reflectance from water
using a Hyperion NIR band (864.35 nm) and demonstrated that
their reflectance values were less than 0.075 on the Hyperion band
before atmospheric correction. Because the river generally covers
a large area, the water body areas were added to extract water
regions automatically in ArcGIS.
Removing atmospheric effects was especially important due
to the low reflectance of the water body. Hyperion imagery
was performed using the Fast Line-of-sight Atmospheric Analysis
of Spectral Hypercubes (FLAASH) software package in ENVI 4.0
(Research Systems Corp.). FLAASH was designed for atmospheric
correction of hyperspectral and multispectral data (Adler-Golden
et al., 1999). It incorporated MODTRAN 4 radioactive transfer codes
into all MODTRAN atmosphere and aerosol types to calculate a
unique solution for atmosphere correction of a remote sensing
image. FLAASH also included a correction for the adjacency

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359

Spatial Profile
0.25

Reflectance

0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
10

20
30
Location

40

Fig. 2. Variance range of water spatial reflectance profile at a Hyperion NIR band (864.35 nm).
0.1

0.08

854

2.5. Calibration of the three-band model

Measured
reflectance

0.07
Reflectance

Apparent
reflectance

of surface water derived from FLAASH were a little higher than in

situ remote sensing reflectance. However, the two spectral curves
had the same change trend, with similar peaks and crests. The
small difference between the two curves could be described by a
root mean square error of 0.0039. The reflectance first increased
as the band increased, arrived at the peak near 580 nm, then
decreased as the band increased, and arrived at another peak near
680 nm in the visible band. Obviously, for surface water of the PRE,
the atmospheric correction based on FLAASH was confirmed to be
effective by comparing the derived reflectance of EO-1 Hyperion
imagery with in situ reflectance.

Derived
reflectance

0.09

0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
447

498

549

600

651

702

752

803

905

Wavelength (nm)

Fig. 3. Comparison of the FLAASH-derived reflectance with the apparent

reflectance and with the measured Hyperion remote sensing reflectance of surface
water in the PRE. The three vertical lines indicate blue, green and red light region
from left to right in the figure.

effect, provided an option to compute a scene-average visibility

(aerosol/haze amount), and used advanced techniques to handle
particularly challenging atmospheric conditions such as clouds.
FLAASH produced results in terms of a scaled radiance reflectance
that equals irradiance reflectance in the case of Lambertian
surfaces.
In this study, model parameters describing a mid-latitude
winter atmosphere and rural aerosols, together with automatic
aerosol retrieval, were used in FLAASH to correct the Hyperion
imagery. Finally, geometric correction was performed by the
nearest-neighbor resample method based on a digital relief map
(mapped in 2005) of 1:50,000 scale of the PRE within 0.5 pixel
departure. To validate the results of the atmospheric correction of
FLAASH, comparison of the derived reflectance with FLAASH and
apparent reflectance of EO-1 image was performed. From Fig. 3, the
apparent reflectance of surface water in the PRE was observed to be
higher regions (especially in the blue light region) than the visible
measured reflectance, and decreased with increased wavelength.
However, the derived reflectance with FLAASH decreased in visible
bands and the most distinct lowering occurred in the blue and
green bands. In the visible light band, the radiance distortion was
mainly caused by Rayleigh scattering and diffused scattering in
the atmospheric window. Rayleigh scattering decreased with band
increasing, with the strongest effect in the blue band. The diffused
scattering that resulted from cloud particles has an effect on all
wavelengths of visible light; thus, it must be removed from the
image signal through the atmospheric correction method, which
resulted in a decrease in object reflectance in the visible band.
The spectral curve derived from FLAASH was also compared
with the in situ spectral curve synchronous with EO-1 Hyperion
satellite imagery acquisition. As shown in Fig. 3, the spectral values

DallOlmo et al. (2003) provided empirical evidence that a

three-band reflectance model, originally developed for estimating
pigment contents in terrestrial vegetation (Gitelson et al., 2003,
2005), could also be used to assess Chla in turbid productive waters
in the form:
Chla [R1 (1 ) R1 (2 )] R(3 )

(2)

where R(i ) was the reflectance in spectral band i .

To fix the position of 1 , 2 , and 3 , an iterative method
was adopted. 1 and 2 were usually selected in the red range.
3 was selected in the NIR range, where scattering controls
reflectance. We fixed the position of any two-band parameters, and
regressed equation (2) to approximate the position of the thirdband parameter, according to a maximal correlative coefficient of
Chla estimation or minimal RMSE of Chla estimation. The above
steps were repeated until each optimal band was constant, and the
correlative coefficient of [R1 (n1 ) R1 (n2 )] R(n3 ) vs. Chla was
also unvarying. The last band positions were model-calibrating
bands for Chla inversion in the PRE.
In the first step, according to the above analysis of spectral
characteristics, the initial positions of the three bands were,
respectively, 670 nm, 695 nm, and 750 nm. The initial positions
for 12 = 695 nm, and 13 = 750 nm in Eq. (2) were used to find the
first approximation for the position of 1 (11 ) (subscript denotes
band number; superscript denotes degree of iterative process). The
term 11 was chosen within the range of maximum Chla absorption
(660690 nm; Fig. 4). The model [R1 (1 ) R1 (695)] R(750)
vs. Chla was regressed for the range of 660690 nm and found a
maximal correlative coefficient (r = 0.8636) of Chla estimation
for 1 around 683 nm.
In the second step, a first approximation of 22 was found after
fixing 21 = 683 nm, and the model was regressed [R1 (683)
R1 (2 )] R(750) vs. Chla. The correlative coefficient was maximal
(r = 0.8843), while 2 was around 690 nm (Table 2).
In the third step, a first approximation of 33 was found (after
fixing 31 = 683 nm and 32 = 690 nm) by regressing the model

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S. Chen et al. / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 356364

Remote sensing reflectance (1/sr)

0.05

0.04

0.03

0.02

0.01

0
350

450

550

650

750

850

Wavelength(nm)

Fig. 4. Remote sensing reflectance of surface water on Dec. 27 and Dec. 31, 2007, in the PRE. The three vertical lines indicate the optimal bands of 1 (684 nm), 2 (690 nm),
and 3 (718 nm) from left to right.
Table 2
Optimum wavelengths and correlation coefficients of 1 , 2 and 3 .

1 (nm)

2 (nm)

3 (nm)

Optimum
band (nm)

Correlation
coefficient
(r)

First
circle

660690
683
683

695
685710
690

750
750
710780

683
690
718

0.8636
0.8843
0.9016

Second
circle

660690
684
684

690
685710
690

718
718
710780

684
690
718

0.902
0.902
0.902

Iterative
process

[R1 (683) R1 (690)] R(3 ) vs. Chla. The correlative coefficient

was maximal (r = 0.9016), while 3 was around 718 nm (Table 2).
After the first circle, the values of 1 , 2 , and 3 were 683 nm,
690 nm, and 718 nm, respectively.
After repeating the calibrating process described above until almost unvarying band positions were reached, it was found that
1 = 684, 2 = 690, and 3 = 718 nm were the optimal wavelengths of the three-band model for Chla estimation for this data
set (Table 2, r = 0.902, RMSE = 1.4 mg/m3 ). The parameters of
two key procedures in three-band optimization for Chla estimation
was presented in Table 2.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Sampling data and spectral characteristic of the water body
The Chla (4.892.6 mg/m3 ) and turbidity (4-120 NTU) spanned
two orders of magnitude, and the absorption coefficients (g400 ) of
CDOM (0.41.41) at 400 nm had one order of magnitude, while
TSS (0.4220) spanned three orders of magnitude (Table 1). As
shown in Fig. 5, Chla and TSS were not related (determination
coefficient of linear relationship R2 < 0.007). Clearly, Chla was not
the only characteristic controlling the optical properties of
waters in the PRE, confirming that these were case II waters
(Morel and Prieur, 1977).
Remote sensing reflectance varies greatly over the visible and
NIR spectral regions (Fig. 4; spectral range 450850 nm). The
spectra were similar in shape (Yin et al., 2004) and magnitude
(550600 nm; (Gitelson et al., 2007)) to typical reflectance spectra
collected in turbid productive waters (Lee et al., 1994; DallOlmo
and Gitelson, 2005; Schalles, 2006). Remote sensing reflectance in
the green range was the highest, reaching 5%, and the peak around
700 nm was much lower in magnitude than the green reflectance

Fig. 5. TSS concentrations plotted versus Chla concentrations.

peak. NIR reflectance was less than 2% and varied widely, arriving
at a peak around 810 nm. The variation of reflectance was
relatively minimal in the blue range. The minimum near the
420 nm band (Fig. 4), corresponding to Chla absorption, was
almost indistinguishable in the reflectance spectra. Reflectance
in the range of 400500 nm did not have pronounced spectral
features over the broad range of turbidity and Chla concentration.
Absorption by dissolved organic matter and tripton and scattering
by particulate matter contributed strongly to reflectance patterns
in this spectral range of 400500 nm. The blue-to-green ratio
R440 /R550 (Gordon and Morel, 1983) was poorly related to Chla and
appeared inadequate for estimating Chla in the PRE (R2 < 0.01,
not shown). In the green band range around 580 nm, absorption
by pigments was minimal, and scattering by all particulate matter
played the main role on reflectance (Chen et al., 2009; Gitelson
et al., 2007). Reflectance of the water body in the PRE also
had an indistinct peak around 695 nm. In this spectral range,
Chla absorption decreases with wavelength, while absorption
by pure water increases. In other productive turbid waters, the
reflectance peak position shifted toward longer wavelengths with
increasing Chla (Gitelson, 1992; Gitelson et al., 2007). However,
the reflectance peak position rarely shifted with increasing Chla,
and Chla was poorly related to peak magnitude (Fig. 6). This
probably suggested that scattering by inorganic and non-living
organic suspended matter significantly affects reflectance in this
spectral region (Gitelson et al., 2007). As with the peak magnitude,
Chla was poorly related to the reflectance in the red band range of
Chla absorption around 670 nm (Fig. 6). The phenomena showed
that reflectance in this range was strongly affected by absorption

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361

100

80
Chla simulated (mg/m3)

R2 =0.9521

60

40

20

0
0

20

40

60

80

100

Chla observed (mg/m3)

Fig. 8. Validation of the three-band model based on in situ data collected on

December 19, 2006 (N = 16, RMSE = 6.44 mg/m3 ).

Fig. 6. Rrs (670) versus Chla (upper panel), and Rrs (695) versus Chla (lower panel).

application of the initial band position model to US inland waters

with three bands (1 = 671 nm, 2 = 710 nm, 3 = 740 nm)
resulted in a larger error (RMSE of 25.7 mg/m3 ) and lower
correlation (R2 < 0.2). The application by Gitelson et al. (2007) to
Chesapeake Bay waters using a three-band model (1 = 675 nm,
2 = 695 nm, 3 = 730 nm) also led to poorer performance, with
RMSE = 25.1 mg/m3 and R2 < 0.2. If 1 of 665 nm, the absorption
value of Chla from Gitelson et al. (2008), was used in our model for
the PRE, it would lead to an RMSE of 2.3 mg/m3 . This would be less
accurate than the model using the bands proposed in this study,
with a smaller RMSE of 1.4 mg/m3 . This probably contributed
to the complicated components of CDOM, Chla, and TSS: they
could directly affect the optical characteristics of turbid productive
waters, and made it more difficult to accurately estimate Chla.
3.3. Validation of the three-band model

Fig. 7. Three-band model plotted versus measured Chla concentrations based on

data from 32 sampling in the PRE.

and scattering by other constituents, which was also found in a

previous study of the PRE (Fang et al., 2010). To accurately retrieve
Chla from reflectance data, it was critical to subtract the effects of
other constituents on reflectance around 670 nm, as suggested in
the conceptual models in Eq. (2) (Gitelson et al., 2007).
3.2. Calibrated three-band model
Fig. 7 presented the optimal three-band model of [R1 (684)
R (690)]R(718) vs. Chla based on data from 32 sampling sites in
the PRE. A least-squares linear regression produced the following
Chla estimation model:
1

Chla = 331.01 [R1 (684) R1 (690)] R(718) + 14.609

(R2 = 0.81, p < 0.001).

(3)

The maximal determination coefficient R = 0.81 and RMSE of

Chla estimation = 1.4 mg/m3 was achieved using a three-band
model with spectral bands 1 = 684 nm, 2 = 690 nm, and
3 = 718 nm.
Using the three-band model, the iterative band calibration
for the PRE significantly improved the performance in model
calibration (RMSE = 1.4 mg/m3 , R2 = 0.81) compared to the
initial band position models. DallOlmo and Gitelsons (2005)
2

According to the result obtained above for optimal bands, the

model of [R1 (684) R1 (690)] R(718) vs. Chla was validated
based on samples from 16 sites (identified by rectangles) on
December 19, 2006 (Fig. 1). Fig. 8 presented simulation results
from the model in comparison to laboratory analysis of Chla with
RMSE = 6.44 mg/m3 . The range of in situ Chla concentrations was
4.892.6 mg/m3 , the mean value is 24.6 mg/m3 , and the median
was 10.1 mg/m3 . The results of model calibration and validation
were better than or equal to those from previous studies (RMSE
< 13 mg/m3 , (DallOlmo et al., 2003); RMSE = 14.6 mg/m3 ,
(DallOlmo and Gitelson, 2005); RMSE = 319 mg/m3 , (Zimba and
Gitelson, 2006); RMSE = 7.9 mg/m3 , (Gitelson et al., 2007)). These
findings demonstrated that the three-band model was capable of
predicting Chla variation in the PRE.
In particular, change in the model parameterization (both in
terms of selected bands and of calibration coefficient, i.e., slope
and intercept of the regression line in Fig. 7) could result from the
different combinations of water-quality parameters (Table 3). It
was found that the first sensitive band of the three-band model
would move towards shorter wavelengths and the slope of the
regression line would decrease as Chla concentration increases.
The optimal calibrating bands for the PRE significantly improved the performance of the three-band model, resulting in
less error and better correlation for model calibration (RMSE =
1.4 mg/m3 , R2 = 0.81) for Chla predictions in comparison with
previous studies (e.g., DallOlmo and Gitelson (2005) and Gitelson
et al. (2007, 2008)). However, the dataset did not show good improvement for applications with the initial band positions found

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S. Chen et al. / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 356364

Table 3
Slopes and intercepts of the relationship Chla versus three-band models with corresponding root mean square error (in mg/m3 ) of Chla estimation and coefficient of
determination (R2 ).
Slope

Intercept

R2

RMSE

Chla (mean)

TSS (mean)

(R671 R710 ) R740 (DallOlmo and Gitelson, 2005)

1
1
(R
(660670) R(700730) ) R(740760) (Gitelson

125
117.42

16
23.09

0.94 (N = 86)
0.94 (N = 145)

14.6 (N = 58)
7.8 (N = 275)

46.5
46.3

18.9
20.4

et al., 2008)
1
1
(R
675 R695 ) R730 (Gitelson et al., 2007)
1
1
(R

R
684
690 ) R718 (This study)

178.9
331.01

10.14
14.609

0.81 (N = 44)
0.81 (N = 32)

7.9 (same samples)

6.4 (N = 16) 2 (Hyperion)
(N = 9)

30
17.6

16.5
40.8

Models
1

for US inland waters. DallOlmo and Gitelson (2005) found that using three bands (1 = 671 nm, 2 = 710 nm, 3 = 740 nm)
resulted in larger error and lower correlation in model calibration
(RMSE = 25.7 mg/m3 , R2 < 0.2). Gitelson et al.s (2007) application to Chesapeake Bay waters using three bands (1 = 675 nm,
2 = 695 nm, 3 = 730 nm) also showed less accurate results in
model calibration (RMSE = 25.1 mg/m3 , R2 < 0.2). When the
MERIS model with three bands (1 = 681 nm, 2 = 708 nm,
3 = 754 nm) was applied to the PRE in this study, using 32
samples in model calibration and 6 samples in model validation,
the resulting error was relatively large (RMSE > 16 mg/m3 ) and
the correlation coefficient was low (R2 = 0.33). Recently, Moses
et al. (2009) showed that the use of the NIRred model (Gitelson,
1992) with MERIS spectral bands of MODIS (R708/R665) could improve accuracy in estimating chlorophyll-a concentrations more
than those using the three-band model for Chla retrieval. However,
examination of Moses et al.s (2009) method by our dataset yielded
poor correlation (R2 = 0.09) and large error (RMSE > 23 mg/m3 ).
This showed that the positions of the three-band model could be
region-specific due to the different properties of turbid productive
waters and the general limitations of physical models for Chla estimation.
3.4. Three-band model application for Chla mapping of hyperion
imagery
According to the result obtained above for optimal bands, the
model of [R1 (684) R1 (690)] R(718) vs. Chla was applied
to retrieve Chla concentrations from the pre-processed Hyperion
imagery. Corresponding to the bands in three-band models, the
bands of the 33rd band (681.2 nm), 34th band (691.37 nm) and the
37th band (721.9 nm) of the Hyperion imagery were selected to
retrieve Chla concentrations using Eq. (3). The results were shown
in Fig. 9.
The Chla concentrations were more than 15 mg/m3 in most
areas in Lingding Bay. The Chla mapping ranged from 0.4 to
66 mg/m3 on December 21, 2006; confirming the similar findings
in previous observations (Shen et al., 2005). The areas of lowest
Chla concentration were detected near the mouths of the Humen
waterway and south of the study area (towards the South China
Sea; Figs. 1 and 9), where Chla concentrations were less than
5 mg/m3 . Low Chla concentration areas in the Humen outlet
were probably caused by the inflow of clean river water quality,
from the Shawan waterway and the East River of Pearl River,
and high water-flow velocity. Areas of high concentrations of
Chla were detected near Dongwan City and Shenzhen City (the
northern and eastern portions of the Hyperion imagery), where
the concentrations of Chla were more than 25 mg/m3 . The
high concentrations near Dongwan City and Shenzhen City were
caused by large numbers of municipal industry and sewage inflow,
resulting in surface-layer Chla enrichment of the water body. Chla
concentration was relatively low near the river outlet (yellow area
in Fig. 9). Their flow direction, from northeast to southwest, was
obviously controlled by the combined actions of coastal currents
and the west channel of Lingding Bay (near the Modaomen outlets;

Fig. 9. Map of distribution of Chla concentrations based on the three-band model

from EO-1 Hyperion imagery.

(Chen et al., 2001)). Another area of high Chla concentration in

central Lingding Bay could be attributed to the interaction of river
water and salt water that led to abundant nutrient salt, as well
as lower TSS concentrations in the water body, which favored
the growth of phytoplankton. Higher values of Chla mapping by
Hyperion imagery, near the coastal areas of Macau and Zhuhai City,
were more than 20 mg/m3 , which was related to nearby municipal
industry, sewage discharge, and harbor pollution. As shown in
Fig. 9, concentrations of Chla gradually increased farther from the
river mouths, yet decreased from east to west, disturbed by the
combination of river outlets and tidal current in Lingding Bay. This
phenomenon was also observed in another study in the PRE (Huang
et al., 1994).
3.5. Further analysis of simulation results
The three-band model was originally developed to estimate
pigment content in terrestrial vegetation (Gitelson et al., 2003,
2005). The model was evaluated with spectral bands that were
found to be optimal for turbid productive inland waters (DallOlmo
et al., 2003, 2005; DallOlmo and Gitelson, 2006), hyper-eutrophic
waters with Chla more than 3000 mg/m3 (Zimba and Gitelson,
2006), and Chesapeake Bay (Gitelson et al., 2007). The optimal
spectral bands were achieved with 1 = 684 nm, 2 = 690 nm,
and 3 = 718 (R2 = 0.81 and RMSE of Chla estimation =
1.4 mg/m3 ) in the PRE. As shown in Table 2, the range of R2

S. Chen et al. / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 356364

363

Table 4
Comparison between observed and EO-1 Hyperion-derived Chla concentrations.
Site

E1

E2

E3

E4

E5

W1

W2

W3

W4

W5

RMSE

Chla observed
Chla simulated

24.5
22.0

30.3
28.2

26.4
26.3

26.8
26.0

24.1
22.2

24.5
26.5

24.
21.7

24.5
21.6

26.4
19.3

24.5
21.8

3 (10 sites) 2 (W4 excluded)

35

Chl predicted (mg/m3)

30
RMSE =2 mg/m3

25

20

15
15

20

25

30

35

Chl observed (mg/m3)

Fig. 10. Comparison between the observed Chla concentrations and those
estimated from an atmospherically corrected Hyperion image of the PRE (Dec. 21,
2006) using Eq. (3) (RMSE = 2 mg/m3 ). Data at 10 stations collected synchronous
with EO-1 Hyperion imagery were used to validate Chla concentrations (black
square site indicates exceptional data removed). Dashed line is the 1:1 line.

varies slightly, from 0.746 to 0.81, with change in the optimal band
location component.
The findings in this paper did not conform to the results for
sensitivity analysis of the original three-band model; the major
difference was in the range of 1 . DallOlmo and Gitelson (2005)
found that RMSE was minimal at 1 between 660 and 673 nm.
The maximal RMSE occurred in a narrow range of 1 near 685 nm,
where the algorithms were strongly affected by variability in the
quantum yield of Chla fluorescence, which contradicted the study.
The study found the minimum of RMSE for Chla estimation at
684 nm (RMSE = 1.4 mg/m3 ). The optimal bands of 2 and 3
were similar with Chesapeake Bay waters. An optimal 2 occurred
within the narrow range near 700 nm, while the optimum for 3 is
near 720 nm (Gitelson et al., 2007).
There was a weak absorption value for Chla at about 684 nm in
the study. In the waters of the PRE, the variability in absorption by
tripton and dissolved organic matter was probably the significant
factor for the change of position in the three-band model.
Therefore, 2 , in the narrow range, should be used to account for
the effects of these region-specific water constituents. This was
also suggested by previous research (Fang et al., 2010).
Data from ten in situ samples of Chla collected synchronous
with acquisition of EO-1 Hyperion satellite imagery were used for
satellite validation of the three-band model. Table 4 presented
the comparison of satellite-inversed and in situ-measured Chla
concentrations. The concentration of Chla was reasonably well
estimated, with a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 3 mg/m3
(relative error <9.5%). It was noticed that the low concentration
area was slightly overestimated and the high concentration
area was slightly underestimated. This could be due in part to
inhomogeneous atmospheric parameters or error in data analysis.
In this study, fixed values of atmospheric parameters were used
for the whole imagery area. However, the atmospheric parameters
should differ from place to place, in particular in the PRE region,
which was near one of the fastest growing industrial areas of
the world, the Pearl River Delta. However, these results were in
agreement with results obtained by Shen et al. (2005) and Huang

et al. (1994), which showed that Chla concentrations of river

reaches were much lower near the mouth, and gradually increase
farther from the mouth.
The comparison graphs of Hyperion-simulated and fieldobserved data of Chla (Fig. 10 and Table 3) showed good accuracy
for Chla mapping by the Hyperion sensor after exceptional data
were removed (RMSE = 2 mg/m3 ). The application result would
probably be better if a larger dynamic range of water-sample
data were used. The dynamic range of Chla concentrations in the
validation data set in this study was small (2430.3 mg/m3 ). The
difficult acquisition conditions for synchronous data collection at
the water surface (Fig. 1) resulted in the limited data set available
for this study.
Based on three cruises conducted over two years to collect
in situ Chla data in the PRE, this study provided additional
evidence that the three-band conceptual model could be used for
Chla estimation of the PRE waters in South China. Furthermore,
the three-band model featured in this paper could potentially
be applied to Hyperion imagery for Chla mapping from space,
although this was tied to a small variable in situ Chla data set
obtained in 2006.
4. Conclusions
The three-band models were spectrally calibrated to select optimal bands for the most accurate estimation of Chla in the PRE in the
study. A strong linear relationship was established between measured Chla and the results from the three-band model [R1 (684)
R1 (690)] R(718). The results have illustrated the potential of
the three-band model to estimate chl-a concentration in turbid
productive waters of PRE from in situ spectra (RMSE of calibration model: 1.4 mg/m3 , R2 = 0.81, N = 32; RMSE of validation: 6.44 mg/m3 , N = 16) and Hyperion satellite data (RMSE:
2 mg/m3 , N = 9, relative error <9.5%), which were more accurate
than those from previous studies (DallOlmo et al., 2003; Zimba
and Gitelson, 2006; Gitelson et al., 2007). Findings from this study
confirmed the rationale behind the conceptual model and demonstrated the robustness of this algorithm for Chla estimation in the
turbid estuarine waters of South China by in situ spectra and Hyperion remote sensing. Meanwhile, it was shown that a marked
change of regression model slope could occur with changes of the
mean values of Chla in the calibration data set, demonstrating that
such an increase of mean Chla concentration values could cause
the first sensitive band of the three-band model to move towards
shorter wavelengths. However, challenges still remain in producing united models (at least in a region) to estimate in situ chl-a concentrations accurately since the band position could change with
different Chla concentration means. With a wider Chla range of in
situ datasets that account for the effects of Hyperion mapping of
Chla, it might be possible to have a better assessment of the accuracy of the three-band models by spatial remote sensing. Next,
the authors will produce research to further assess the effect of
the three-band model with changed Chla concentration ranges or
other optically active constituent concentrations.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a Natural Science Fund grant
(07100789) of Guangdong Province, a National Natural Science

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S. Chen et al. / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 356364

Fund grant (40771160) of China, an open fund grant (20100102)

of the Open Laboratory of Geo-spatial Information Technology
and Application of Guangdong Province, the open fund grant
(SK050010) of State Key Lab of Remote Sensing Sciences, Jointly
Sponsored by Beijing Normal University, and an Institute of
Remote Sensing Applications of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
We thank Drs. Haiyan Cheng, Qing Xiao, and Chuqun Chen for their
help in field data sampling and analysis. We also thank Shiliang
Wu of the Water Environment Monitoring Center of Pearl River
Basin, PRWC (Guangzhou) for his help in field water sampling and
analysis. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers
for constructive and helpful comments.
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