Coccolithophores L3 flag

[tihicha]

Hello,

I had a question about the details of the coccolithophores flag used in L3 Rrs data production. This site:
https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/atbd/ocl2flags/
states that this ***** is on by default for L3 data. How exactly is it applied, i.e. are pixels with detected coccolithophores (and/or detached coccoliths?) excluded from the final L3 Rrs image? If so, is there some kind of threshold used, and to what degree are final Rrs L3 images expected to contain contribution from PIC? If the PIC contribution is near fully excluded, then how are L3 PIC images generated?

I'm asking specifically for R2018.0 SeaWiFS data, but would be good to know generically how this works for the most current reprocessing of all sensors.

Many thanks for your time!
Best,
Tiho

[OB ODPS - towens]

The COCCOLITH flag is masked when binning Rrs at L3, but not when binning PIC

The ATBD for PIC is at:
https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/atbd/pic/

Tommy