Atmospheric Correction of Remote Imagery Using Ground-based Radiometers

This Spectral Sciences, Inc. project addresses the development of data analysis software tools for ground-based radiometers to facilitate improved atmospheric correction of remotely sensed hyperspectral and multispectral imagery (HSI and MSI) of the coastal zone. The atmospheric variables needed for the correction (water vapor and ozone column amounts, and aerosol optical properties) may be retrieved from a radiometer located in the vicinity of the remotely sensed scene of interest. The radiometer-retrieved information will significantly improve atmospheric correction accuracy, most notably by taking the guesswork out of selecting a suitable aerosol modelPhase I featured novel MODTRAN-based algorithms and tools for analyzing shadow band radiometer measurements and porting the results to the FLAASH atmospheric correction algorithm. Key accomplishments include demonstration of radiometer data conditioning for continuous daytime retrievals, an aerosol parameterization that extrapolates well into the IR, analysis of radiometer data, and demonstration of complete, end-to-end atmospheric retrieval and correction using simulated radiometer and HSI data. In Phase II, an integrated software toolkit will be prototyped and validated against new HSI/MSI field and archival data. In Phase III, the toolkit will be commercialized and integrated with MODTRAN5 and ENVI/FLAASH products under development with our commercial partner, Research Systems, Inc.