Remote Sensing of Coastal Environment

Planning Systems, Inc. (PSI) proposes to demonstrate through modeling and simulation, that polarization technology can be exploited to enhance the remote detection of coastal phenomena relevant to NOAA¿s mission. PSI proposes to adapt an existing toolkit developed under Air Force research and refined for commercial applications, PSI¿s Polarization Toolkit (P2T). We will modify P2T to identify portions of spectral signature related to skylight and sunglint and develop a subtraction technique to eliminate these signatures from selected pixels within an image. Comparisons will be made to demonstrate the enhanced detection in either time or space from images processed using standard atmospheric correction techniques. Phase II will focus on the robustness of the new technique and the collection of polarized spectra from example phenomena for further study. Follow-on efforts proposed include investigation of the use of linear polarizers onboard satellite sensors to enhance remote detection.