Study of attenuation depths for MODIS bands in the Bohai Sea in China

An attenuation depth is defined for remote sensing purposes as a depth above which 90% of the arising light leaving the water surface is originated.The deeper the attenuation depth,the more information of water is detectable by remote sensing,then the more precise information of water is extracted.Meanwhile,the attenuation depth is helpful to know water layer (by its thickness) from which remote sensing will be able to extract information.A number of investigators are using the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (or MODIS) for remote sensing of ocean color.It is necessary to have a rough idea of the effective attenuation depth of imagery in each of the spectral bands employed by the MODIS.The attenuation depth is directly determined from MODIS data.Though analyzing the spectral distribution of the attenuation depth on 7 August 2003 and the seasonal variation of the attenuation depth (551 nm) in the Bohai Sea indicated that:the spectral distribution of the attenuation depth for the spectral range between 400 to 700 nm is single-peak curve,and it's similar and difference in different regions is consistent with other scholars' results of zoning,moreover,it supports the Bohai Sea is Case 2 water; the maximum attenuation depth shifts toward longer wavelengths,liking the red shift,with increase of turbidity of water,just like the maximum attenuation depth in the outside of the northwest coast of the Bohai Sea and the Bohai Strait is at 531nm,in the central of the Bohai Sea is at 551nm,in the region controlled by the Huanghe (Yellow) River,the region impacted by the old Huanghe River,the western side of the Liaodong Bay and the eastern side of the Liaodong Bay is at 555 nm; the seasonal change of the attenuation depth is the largest in the summer,followed by the fall,and the ranking of winter and spring in different regions is distinct.The attenuation depth in different regions is dissimilar:the order of the attenuation depth in different regions from small to big is the region controlled by the Huanghe River or the eastern side of the Liaodong Bay,the western side of the Liaodong Bay,the region impacted by the old Huanghe River,the central of the Bohai Sea or the outside of the northwest coast of the Bohai Sea,the Bohai Strait (except at 412 nm and 645 nm),in which between the region controlled by the Huanghe River and the eastern side of the Liaodong Bay (and between the central of the Bohai Sea and the outside of the northwest coast of the Bohai Sea) it varies in different seasons and different bands.