MERIS Chl-a Timeseries of Lake Constance 2003-2006

A physically based water constituent retrieval algorithm is used for the automatic processing of MERIS level 1B full resolution data. The algorithm requires several input variables for individual optimization with different sensors (i. e. channel calibration and weighting), aquatic regions (i. e. specific inherent optical properties) or atmospheric conditions (i. e. Aerosol models). The optical properties are derived from optical in situ measurements during concurrent MERIS data acquisition on 20 April 2007. Remaining parameters are iteratively optimized for best performance with 21 MERIS datasets of Lake Constance in the years 2003-2005, and validated with 11 datasets in 2006. Operational water quality sampling measurements acquired by local authorities serve as reference.