Refining atmospheric correction for aquatic remote spectroscopy

Abstract:

Remote spectroscopic investigations of aquatic ecosystems typically measure radiance at high spectral resolution and then correct these data for atmospheric effects to estimate Remote Sensing Reflectance (Rrs) at the surface. These reflectance spectra reveal phytoplankton absorption and scattering features, enabling accurate retrieval of traditional remote sensing parameters, such as chlorophyll-a, and new retrievals of additional parameters, such as phytoplankton functional type. Future missions will significantly expand coverage of these datasets with airborne campaigns (CORAL, ORCAS, and the HyspIRI Preparatory Campaign) and orbital instruments (EnMAP, HyspIRI).

Remote characterization of phytoplankton can be influenced by errors in atmospheric correction due to uncertain atmospheric constituents such as aerosols. The “empirical line method” is an expedient solution that estimates a linear relationship between observed radiances and in-situ reflectance measurements. While this approach is common for terrestrial data, there are few examples involving aquatic scenes. Aquatic scenes are challenging due to the difficulty of acquiring in situ measurements from open water; with only a handful of reference spectra, the resulting corrections may not be stable.

Here we present a brief overview of methods for atmospheric correction, and describe ongoing experiments on empirical line adjustment with AVIRIS overflights of Monterey Bay from the 2013-2014 HyspIRI preparatory campaign. We present new methods, based on generalized Tikhonov regularization, to improve stability and performance when few reference spectra are available.

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