Abstract: Turbid water and high absorbing atmospheric aerosols are the main characters of the sea coast of China.A new algorithm for simultaneously retrieving aerosol optical characteristics and water color of turbid water is presented.The algorithm is based on the satellite data of MODerate resolution imaging spectroradiometer(MODIS).First,the aerosol model is built with the use of historical data observed by sun-photometers located in China coast areas.Second,based on the water-land-cloud discrimination capability of MODIS long wavelengths(1 240,1 640 and 2 133 nm),we establish a look-up table(LUT) of top-of-atmosphere reflectance with variation of aerosol optical thickness and geometry conditions.Third,use the LUT and the characters of long wavelengths of MODIS and retrieve aerosol optical properties.Moreover,we make field experiments to validate and improve the algorithm.The algorithm is useful in studying the atmospheric correction models of HY and FY satellite of China.Also,the algorithm can directly use CMODIS data of FY-3,China,to accurately retrieve aerosol optical characteristic of coast zone.