Performance evaluation of operational atmospheric correction algorithms over the East China Seas

To acquire high-quality operational data products for Chinese in-orbit and scheduled ocean color sensors, the performances of two operational atmospheric correction(AC) algorithms(ESA MEGS 7.4.1 and NASA Sea DAS 6.1) were evaluated over the East China Seas(ECS) using MERIS data. The spectral remote sensing reflectance R_(rs)(λ), aerosol optical thickness(AOT), and ?ngstr?m exponent(α) retrieved using the two algorithms were validated using in situ measurements obtained between May 2002 and October 2009. Match-ups of R_(rs), AOT, and α between the in situ and MERIS data were obtained through strict exclusion criteria. Statistical analysis of R_(rs)(λ) showed a mean percentage difference(MPD) of 9%–13% in the 490–560 nm spectral range, and significant overestimation was observed at 413 nm(MPD>72%). The AOTs were overestimated(MPD>32%), and although the ESA algorithm outperformed the NASA algorithm in the blue-green bands, the situation was reversed in the red-near-infrared bands. The value of α was obviously underestimated by the ESA algorithm(MPD=41%) but not by the NASA algorithm(MPD=35%). To clarify why the NASA algorithm performed better in the retrieval of α, scatter plots of the α single scattering albedo(SSA) density were prepared. These α-SSA density scatter plots showed that the applicability of the aerosol models used by the NASA algorithm over the ECS is better than that used by the ESA algorithm, although neither aerosol model is suitable for the ECS region. The results of this study provide a reference to both data users and data agencies regarding the use of operational data products and the investigation into the improvement of current AC schemes over the ECS.

Atmospheric correction of HJ-1 A/B CCD over land： Land surface reflectance calculation for geographical information product

This paper proposed a method to retrieve the land surface reflectance from the HJ-1A/B CCD data. The aerosol optical depth（AOD）, the most important factor affecting the atmospheric correction of CCD images at all bands, is proposed to retrieve from the CCD imagery by the approach of dense dark vegetation（DDV） method. A look-up table in terms of the transmittances, the path radiances and the atmospheric spherical albedo as functions of the AOD was established for a variety of sun-sensor geometry and aerosol loadings. The atmospheric correction is then achieved with the look-up table and the MODIS surface reflectance output（MOD09） as the priori datasets. Based on the retrieved AOD and the look-up table of atmospheric correction coefficients, the land surface reflectance was retrieved for the HJ-1A/B data according to the atmospheric radiative transfer equation. Some in-situ measurement Data for Yanzhou of Shandong province in East China and MODIS land surface reflectance products MOD09 are used to preliminarily validate the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method can remove effectively the atmospheric contributions, and the overall accuracy of the retrieval land surface reflectance can be improved substantially.