Features of turbid waters from Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO): Preliminary results at the Yellow River Delta and the Bohai Sea

The Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO) is the first spaceborne imaging spectrometer optimized for monitoring the coastal ocean, which has about 5 nm spectral resolution and 90 m ground spatial resolution. HICO images and in-situ reflectance spectra were collected for studying the spectral responses of waters at the Yellow River Delta and its vicinity where they are featured by high turbidity. Results show that the reflectance spectra are generally consistent with the in-situ measured ones. The reflectance peak at 817.4 nm ( band No.73 of HICO image) was used as an index of the content of suspended sediments (SS). Results show that the reflectance peak in the spectral region of 450-750 nm shifts toward longer wavelength with the increase of the concentration of SS. This work demonstrates that HICO hyperspectral imagery may be useful for monitoring very turbid coastal waters.