Uncertainty assessment of unattended above-water radiometric data collection from research vessels with the Dynamic Above-water Radiance (L) and Irradiance (E) Collector (DALEC)

We used above- and below-water radiometry measurements collected during a research voyage in the eastern Indian Ocean to assess uncertainties in deriving the remote sensing reflectance, R rs , from unattended above-water radiometric data collection with the In-Situ Marine Optics Pty. Ltd. (IMO) Dynamic Above-water Radiance (L) and Irradiance (E) Collector (DALEC). To achieve this, the R rs values derived from using the latest version of this hyperspectral radiometer were compared to values obtained from two in-water profiling radiometer systems of rather general use in the ocean optics research community, i.e., the Biospherical Instruments Inc. Compact Optical Profiling System (C-OPS) and the Seabird HyperPro II. Our results show that unattended, carefully quality-controlled, DALEC measurements provide R rs for wavelengths < 600 nm that match those derived from the in-water systems with no bias and a dispersion of about 8%, provided that the appropriate technique is used to quantify the contribution of sky light reflection to the measured signal. The dispersion is larger (25-50%) for red bands, which is expected for clear oligotrophic waters as encountered during the voyage, where ∼2 10 -5  < R rs < ∼2 10 -4 sr -1 . For comparison, the two in-water systems provided R rs in agreement within 4% for wavelengths < 600 nm.