Estimating the water-leaving albedo from ocean color

Water-leaving albedo (αw), defined as the ratio of water-leaving irradiance to downwelling irradiance just above the surface, is a major component of ocean surface albedo (α) but has long been ignored or underrepresented. A semi-analytical scheme based on inherent optical properties (IOPs), termed IOPs-αw, is proposed in this study to estimate spectral αw(λ) from ocean color measurements. Evaluations with numerical simulations of radiative transfer show that IOPs-αw outperforms the conventional scheme based on chlorophyll-a (Chl) concentration. The median absolute percentage difference (MAPD) of derived αw(λ) from IOPs-αw is generally less than 3% in the blue-green spectral domain, in comparison to MAPD of over 40% for estimated αw(λ) from the Chl-based scheme. IOPs-αw is later implemented to monthly composite data of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), where reasonable spatial distributions and seasonal patterns of αw(λ) are obtained. In particular, broadband αw in the visible domain, termed αw_VIS, obtained via IOPs-αw is over 50% higher than the previous estimation by the Chl-based scheme in most oceanic waters. Furthermore, this study concludes that αw_VIS could contribute up to 20% to α in oceanic waters under low solar-zenith angles. Thus, we suggest that neither the spatial variability of αw_VIS nor the contribution of αw_VIS to α shall be neglected, and it is necessary to incorporate IOPs-αw into current parameterizations of α in coupled ocean-atmosphere and climate models.