Bio-optical model with optimal parameter suitable for Taihu Lake in water colour remote sensing

Sixty-seven samplings were collected, almost covering all over the Taihu Lake, in one campaign in October 2004. At each station, the backscattering coefficients and the field spectra were measured in situ, respectively, with a HS-6 and a FieldSpec 931 spectroradiometer (ASD Inc.). Almost concurrently, water samples were fetched with Niskin water-fetching equipment and then returned to the laboratory for concentration and absorption measurement. The whole lake was divided into different areas according to some indexes. Three models were used to calculate remote sensing reflectance R-rsc for the waters where the in situ remote sensing reflectance R-rsm was beyond the bottom effect, which was considered as optically deep waters. By comparison of R-rsc and R-rsm, the best model suitable for optically deep waters in Taihu Lake, together with its optimal experiential parameter, were selected and developed, which was very important and helpful to develop a universal model to estimate accurately remote sensing reflectance for the whole lake in the next step.