Example of Monte Carlo method uncertainty evaluation for above-water ocean colour radiometry

Abstract

We describe a method to evaluate an uncertainly budget for the in situ Ocean Colour Radiometric measurements. A Monte Carlo approach is chosen to propagate the measurement uncertainty inputs through the measurements model. The measurement model is designed to address instrument characteristics and uncertainty associated with them. We present the results for a particular example when the radiometers were fully characterised and then use the same data to show a case when such characterisation is missing. This, depending on the measurement and the wavelength, can increase the uncertainty value significantly; for example, the downwelling irradiance at 442.5 nm with fully characterised instruments can reach uncertainty values of 1%, but for the instruments without such characterisation, that value could increase to almost 7%. The uncertainty values presented in this paper are not final, as some of the environmental contributors were not fully evaluated. The main conclusion of this work are the significance of thoughtful instrument characterisation and correction for the most significant uncertainty contributions in order to achieve a lower measurements uncertainty value.