A new method for simultaneous retrieval of aerosol properties and marine constituents in turbid waters is described. This method is an extension to turbid waters of an approach developed previously for simultaneous retrieval of aerosol properties and chlorophyll concentrations in clear waters. This extension is accomplished by employing near-infrared (NIR) channels not available on the SeaWiFS and MERIS instruments to help retrieve aerosol parameters over turbid waters. Optimal estimation theory is used to retrieve in-water parameters from multi- and hyperspectral information. Both forward and inverse modeling strategies will be discussed, as well as the uniqueness of the solutions, the information content available in multi- and hyperspectral data, and the error analysis approach. Our results indicate that it is important to use forward models that accurately treat the radiative transfer in the coupled (combined) atmosphere-ocean system, and to carefully select the most suitable bio-optical models for the in-water inherent optical properties (IOPs). Synthetic data, as well as multi- and hyperspectral images of data obtained over clear as well as turbid waters, are used to test the validity of the new retrieval approach