Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., doi:10.5194/gmd-2016-297, 2017 Manuscript under review for journal Geosci. Model Dev. Discussion started: 6 April 2017 c Author(s) 2017. CC-BY 3.0 License. A Landsat-based model for retrieving total suspended solids concentration of estuaries and coasts Chongyang Wang1,2,3, Shuisen Chen2, Dan Li2, Wei Liu1,2,3, Ji Yang1,2,3, Danni Wang4 1 Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China 5 2 Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou 510070, China 3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 4 Department of Resources and the Urban Planning, Xin Hua College of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510520, China Correspondence to: Shuisen Chen (
[email protected]) 10 Abstract. Retrieving total suspended solids (TSS) concentration accurately is essential for sustainable management of estuaries and coasts, which plays a key role in the interaction of hydrosphere, pedosphere and atmosphere. Although many TSS retrieval models have been published, the general inversion method that is applicable to different field conditions is still under research. In order to obtain a TSS remote sensing model that is suitable for estimating the TSS concentrations with wide range in estuaries and coasts by Landsat imageries, this study recalibrated and validated a 15 number of regression-techniques-based TSS retrieval models using 129 in-situ samples collected from five regions of China during the period of 2006-2013. It was found that the optimized Quadratic model using the Ratio of Logarithmic transformation of red band and near infrared band and logarithmic transformation of TSS concentration (QRLTSS) works well and shows a relatively satisfactory performance.