A three component ocean color model for South China Se a is presented

which takes into account the contributions of chlorophyll

yel low substance and inorganic particles. It is then used to simulate the spectral reflectance just below sea surface based on optical properties of these colored matters. The reflectance spectra are also calculated from in situ measured downw elling and upwelling irradiance. The simulated spectra are validated by the comp arison with those measured in situ. Principal component analysis is carried out on a large number of reflectance sp ectra

and it is used to develop the retrieval algorithms of chlorophyll and d issolved organic carbon. The results indicated that the retrieval accuracy of ch lorophyll and dissolved organic carbon is 17% and 37.4% respectively. It appea r s possible that this full spectral method can improve ocean color remote sensin g accuracy.