ABSTRACT:The water color in 14 lakes of diverse optical character has been computed from near‐surface upwelling irradiance spectra recorded by a submersible spectroradiometer. In these lakes the hues corresponding to irradiance spectra are in reasonable agreement with Munsell hue matches obtained directly by observation in the field. The simple field technique for hue matching using the Munsell standards was broadly validated by this spectroradiometric study. The technique is recommended for further study by limnologists and water resource managers as a potential additional tool for characterizing water