Phytoplankton biomass and productivity have been continuously monitored from ocean color satellites for over a decade. Yet, the most
widely used empirical approach for estimating chlorophyll a (Chl) from satellites can be in error by a factor of 5 or more. Such variability is
due to differences in absorption and backscattering properties of phytoplankton and related concentrations of colored-dissolved organic
matter (CDOM) and minerals. The empirical algorithms have built-in assumptions that follow the basic precept of biological oceanography