Remote sensing of sediment and chlorophyll with the test-bed aircraft multispectral scanner

An instrument known as the test-bed aircraft multispectral scanner (TBAMS) was used in a research flight over the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. Upwelled radiances from the TBAMS data were correlated with the water parameters, particularly sediment and chlorophyll a. Several algorithms were demonstrated for monitoring sediment and chlorophyll, with a three-band ratio being the best. The primary advantage of the three-band ratio was found to be its apparent insensitivity to atmospheric and Sun-angle variations.