Theoretical analysis and experimental observation for the effect of suspended sediment particle size on remote-sensing reflectance

An experiment for spectral radiation measurement was designed and conducted under the stable-controllable conditions in order to minimize the uncertain influences from in situ measurements in the estuarine water. Sediment particles from the Yangtze river estuary and the Yellow river estuary, as two typically turbid estuaries in China, were sampled in the field, and screened and resampled in the laboratory. Furthermore, the quantitative relationships between the suspended sediment particle size and the backscattering coefficient and remote-sensing reflectance were theoretically analysed. The effects of the particle size of sediment on remote-sensing reflectance were experimentally observed. The results provide the basis for the modelling of case-2 waters and the parameterized expression of particle size in remote-sensing models.