A technique for estimation of suspended sediment concentration in very high turbid coastal waters: An investigation from Gulf of Cambay, India

This paper presents a technique to estimate the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in Case-2 waters based on spectral similarity between satellite images and library spectra. Average Weighted Spectral Similarity (AWSS), a measure of spectral matching, is used to estimate SSC ranges in ocean color monitor (OCM) data of Gulf of Cambay (GC), India. For this, a spectral library comprising field and laboratory measured data representing diverse sediment mineralogy and grain sizes was generated. Results estimated by AWSS were compared with other published procedures and observed to be more accurate (R2 = 0.95 at 99% significance). Further, in Case-2 waters reflectance in bands centered at 743 and 835 nm is more sensitive to SSC changes. Sediment concentration and grain size significantly affect reflectance of water.