1. Fluorescence Line Height (FLH) and Fluorescence Quantum Yield (FQY)

2. Fluorescence Line Height (FLH) -Histograms of individual monthly L3 composites, 7/2002-2/2010 (black dotted lines) -Mean of individual distributions = distribution of all data pooled together (red line) - Distribution of “deep water” data nearly identical to all data (small differences at high end) - Shallow water distribution shifted towards higher values (as expected)

3. Fluorescence Quantum Yield (FQY) -Histograms of individual monthly L3 composites, 1/2003-12/2007 (black dotted lines) -Mean of individual distributions = distribution of all data pooled together (red line) - Distribution of data somewhat independent of depth. In fact, median “deep water” value is slightly higher than “shallow”

4. 1%5%10%50%90%95%99% FLHMODISAll0.00020.00080.00130.00460.01360.01780.0319 Shallow0.00030.00120.0020.0090.02940.04140.0789 Deep0.00020.00070.00120.00430.01220.01550.0237 NOMAD0.00040.00150.00160.02220.10610.15430.2961 FLH Percentiles (units of mW cm -2  m -1 sr -1 ) - NOMAD FLH (N=1143) was calculated assuming L w (748)=0;

5. 1%5%10%50%90%95%99% FQY * MODISAll0.00040.00140.00240.00810.01550.01840.0274 Shallow0.00030.00100.00170.00640.01350.01630.0245 Deep0.00040.00170.00280.00860.01560.01850.0270 FQY # MODISAll0.00040.00160.00290.00970.01940.02430.0493 Shallow0.00030.00130.00220.00820.01670.02080.0335 Deep0.00040.00190.00330.01000.01940.02420.0393 FQY Percentiles (unitless) * this is  sat as in Behrenfeld et al. (2009) # using R2009.1 MODIS data

6. Particulate backscattering (b bp )

7. Solid – GSM Dotted – QAA Blue – in situ - Distribution of individual datasets from OSU and UCSB

8. Solid – GSM Dotted – QAA Blue – in situ - Distribution of overall in situ dataset and satellite-retrieved bbp - Satellite bbp is from GSM and QAA and has also been evaluated for shallow v. deep water

9. 1%5%10%50%90%95%99% bbp443in situAll "Shallow"0.00130.00180.00220.00460.00810.010.0143 "Deep"0.00040.0006 0.00090.00420.00520.0086 NOMAD0.00050.00080.00090.00240.00530.00640.0079 bbp443MODIS GSMAll0.00050.00070.00080.00120.00230.00340.0131 Shallow0.00060.00090.00110.00330.02390.03830.0651 Deep0.00050.00070.00080.00110.00180.00240.004 bbp443MODIS QAAAll0.00060.0010.00120.00180.00350.00470.0143 Shallow0.00090.00140.00170.00430.0290.05420.1195 Deep0.00060.0010.00120.00170.00290.00360.0054 Percentiles (units of m -1 ) * wrt in situ data, "shallow" refers to the PnB dataset, while "Deep" reflects the OSU dataset. Otherwise they refer to depths 1000m, respectively

10. Percentile ranges -1%, 5%, 10%, 50%, 90%, 95%, 99% - Mean of percentile ranges of individual monthly distributions = percentile ranges of mean distribution

11. Particulate backscattering (bbp443) -Histograms of individual monthly L3 composites (from GSM), 7/2002-2/2010 (black dotted lines) -Mean of individual distributions = distribution of all data pooled together (red line - GSM; cyan line - QAA) Percentile ranges -1%, 5%, 10%, 50%, 90%, 95%, 99% - Mean of percentile ranges of individual monthly distributions = percentile ranges of mean distribution