Atmospheric correction

Atmospheric correction is the process of adjusting images taken by satellite or airborne sensors to remove distortions caused by the atmosphere. These distortions—mainly due to the scattering and absorption of sunlight by particles and gases—can affect how accurately the sensor captures the true reflectance (or brightness) of the Earth's surface.^[1]^[2]

In remote sensing, atmospheric effects can significantly alter the spectral characteristics of the radiation detected by sensors. This occurs because light must pass through the atmosphere twice—first as sunlight traveling to the Earth's surface, and again as reflected light returning to the sensor—undergoing both absorption and scattering along the way.^[3] These distortions can affect the accuracy of surface reflectance measurements and are typically corrected through a range of physical and statistical methods.^[4]

Examples of atmospheric correction methods

More information Sensor, Approach ...

Examples of atmospheric correction techniques for multispectral remote-sensing images, ordered chronologically to show the historical development of atmospheric correction methods in remote-sensing.
Sensor	Approach
MSS	band-to-band regression ^[5]
MSS	all-band spectral covariance ^[6]
airborne MSS	band-to-band regression ^[7]
AVHRR	iterative estimation ^[8]
MSS, TM	DOS with exponential scattering model ^[9]
TM	DOS with exponential scattering model, downwelling atmospheric radiance measurements ^[10]
TM	pixel-by-pixel tasseled cap haze parameter ^[11]
AVHRR	DOS, NDVI, AVHRR band 3 ^[12]
airborne TMS, Landsat TM	ground and airborne solar measurements, atmospheric modeling code ^[13]
TM	comparison of ten DOS and atmospheric modeling code variations with field data ^[14]
TM	dark target, modeling code ^[15]
TM (all bands)	atmospheric modeling code, region histogram matching ^[16]
TM	DOS with estimated atmospheric transmittance ^[17]
TM	dark target, atmospheric modeling code
TM, ETM+	empirical line method, single target, ground measurements
TM	water reservoirs, comparison of 7 methods for 12 dates
AVHRR	2-band PCT used to separate aerosol components

References

[1]
Pacifici, F.; Longbotham, N.; Emery, W. J. (2014-10-01). "The Importance of Physical Quantities for the Analysis of Multitemporal and Multiangular Optical Very High Spatial Resolution Images". IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. 52 (10): 6241–6256. Bibcode:2014ITGRS..52.6241P. doi:10.1109/TGRS.2013.2295819.
[2]
"Atmospheric Correction". University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
[3]
Schowengerdt, Robert (2007). Remote Sensing: Models and Methods for Image Processing. Elsevier Inc. p. 337. ISBN 978-0-12-369407-2.
[4]
Schowengerdt, Robert (2007). Remote Sensing: Models and Methods for Image Processing. Elsevier Inc. p. 338. ISBN 978-0-12-369407-2.
[5]
Potter, J. F.; Mendolowitz, M. (1975). On the determination of the haze levels from Landsat data. 10th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment. NASA United States. pp. 695–703. 19760052102.
[6]
Switzer, P.; Kowalik, W. S.; Lyon, R. J. (1981). "Estimation of atmospheric path radiance by the covariance matrix method". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. 47: 1469–1476.
[7]
Potter, J. F. (1984). "The channel correlation method for estimating aerosol levels from multispectral scanner data". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. 50: 43–52.
[8]
Singh, S. M.; Cracknell, A. P. (1986). "The estimation of atmospheric effects for SPOT using AVHRR channel-1 data". International Journal of Remote Sensing. 7 (3): 361–377. Bibcode:1986IJRS....7..361S. doi:10.1080/01431168608954692.
[9]
Chavez, P. S. (1988). "An improved dark-object subtraction technique for atmospheric scattering correction of multispectral data". Remote Sensing of Environment. 24 (3): 459–479. Bibcode:1988RSEnv..24..459C. doi:10.1016/0034-4257(88)90019-3.
[10]
Chavez, P. S. (1989). "Radiometric calibration of Landsat Thematic Mapper multispectral images". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. 55 (9): 1285–1294.
[11]
Lavreau, J. (1991). "De-hazing Landsat Thematic Mapper images". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. 57 (10): 1297–1302.
[12]
Holben, B.; Vermote, E.; Kaufman, Y. J.; Tanre, D.; Kalb, V. (1992). "Aerosol retrieval over land from AVHRR data - application for atmospheric correction". IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. 30 (2): 212–222. Bibcode:1992ITGRS..30..212H. doi:10.1109/36.134072.
[13]
Wrigley, R. C.; Spanner, M. A.; Slye, R. E.; Pueschel, R. F.; Aggarwal, H. R. (1992). "Atmospheric correction of remotely sensed image data by a simplified model". Journal of Geophysical Research. 97 (D17): 18797–18814. Bibcode:1992JGR....9718797W. doi:10.1029/92JD01347.
[14]
Moran, M. S.; Jackson, R. D.; Slater, P. N.; Teillet, P. M. (1992). "Evaluation of simplified procedures for retrieval of land surface reflectance factors from satellite sensor output". Remote Sensing of Environment. 41 (2–3): 169–184. Bibcode:1992RSEnv..41..169M. doi:10.1016/0034-4257(92)90076-V.
[15]
Teillet, P. M.; Fedosejevs, G. (1995). "On the dark target approach to atmospheric correction of remotely sensed data". Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 21 (4): 374–387. Bibcode:1995CaJRS..21..374T. doi:10.1080/07038992.1995.10855161.
[16]
Richter, R. (1996). "A spatially adaptive fast atmospheric correction algorithm". International Journal of Remote Sensing. 17 (6): 1201–1214. Bibcode:1996IJRS...17.1201R. doi:10.1080/01431169608949077.
[17]
Chavez, P. S. Jr. (1996). "Image-based atmospheric corrections-revisited and improved". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. 62 (9): 1025–1036.

Atmospheric correction

Examples of atmospheric correction methods

See also

References

External links

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