We define "non-traditional water color remote sensing" as the study of the heterogeneous vertical distribution of water color parameters and their inherent optical properties, in relation to the environmental factors (external and internal) that influence their distribution.This is quite different from traditional water color remote sensing as it includes the third dimension, rather than assuming homogeneous vertical distribution of water color parameters.In this study, we explore approaches to determine the vertical distribution of chlorophyll-a and explore methods to simulate the underwater light field.It should be noted that remote sensing reflectance (R_rs) of non-uniform water column could be equivalent to optically weighted R_rs with vertical uniform distribution.The effects of non-uniform vertical profiles of chlorophyll-a concentration on inversion models of remote-sensing is explored, and challenges should be the focus of further research.