Abstract: Some models based on(moderate resolution imaging spectrometer,MODIS) image data for estimating concentration of the suspended sediment(SS) are developed by taking Taihu lake as an experimental site in this study.SS concentration measurements,field spectra and MODIS images are obtained concurrently.An image-based atmosphere correction method is applied in preprocess of MODIS image data to reduce the atmospheric effect.Based on studying the spectral characteristic of SS,the suitable MODIS bands and band combinations are correlated with SS measurements.The field spectra data is used to confirm the result.Then,using simple regressive and multivariate regression analysis,the semi-empirical retrieval models are developed,evaluated and applied.This study demonstrates that MODIS images are useful in estimating SS concentration in large inland lakes like Taihu lake.Bands 2,4,14 with different resolutions of 250 m,500 m and 1 000 m are suitable to detect SS concentration.The combinations of r4/r3 and r4-r3 with 500 m resolution,the multivariate combination of bands 8,11,13,14 with 1 000 m resolution are chosen to develop the retrieval models(R²≥0.85).