Atmospheric correction for ocean spectra retrievals from high-altitude multi-angle, multi-spectral photo-polarimetric remote sensing observations: Results for coastal ocean waters.

Abstract:

A major challenge for spaceborne observations of ocean color is to correct for atmospheric scattering, which typically contributes ≥85% to the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiance and varies substantially with aerosols. Ocean color missions traditionally analyze TOA radiance in the near-infrared (NIR), where the ocean is black, to constrain the TOA atmospheric scattering in the visible (VIS). However, this procedure is limited by insufficient sensitivity of NIR radiance to absorption and vertical distribution of aerosols, and by uncertainties in the extrapolation of aerosol properties from the NIR to the VIS.

To improve atmospheric correction for ocean color observations, one needs to change the traditional procedure for this correction and/or increase the aerosol information. The instruments proposed to increase the aerosol information content for the Pre-Aerosol, Clouds, and ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission include ultraviolet and Oxygen A-band observations, as well as multispectral and multiangle polarimetry. However few systematic studies have been performed to quantify the improvement such measurements bring to atmospheric correction.

To study the polarimetric atmospheric correction capabilities of PACE-like instruments, we conducted field experiments off the Coast of California to obtain high-altitude (65,000 ft) and ship-based observations of water-leaving radiance. The airborne data sets consist of hyperspectral radiance between 380-2500 nm by the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, and multi-spectral multi-angle polarimetric data between 410-2250 nm by the Research Scanning Polarimeter. We discuss examples of retrieved atmosphere and ocean state vectors, and of corresponding ocean color spectra obtained by subtracting the computed atmospheric scattering contribution from the high-altitude radiance measurements. The ocean color spectra thus obtained are compared with those measured from the ship.