ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTION OVER CASE 2 WATERS WITH AN ITERATIVE FITTING ALGORITHM

A modular atmospheric correction algorithm is proposed that uses atmos pheric and water contents models to predict the visible and near-infra red reflectances observed by a satellite over water. These predicted v alues are compared with the satellite reflectances at each pixel, and the model parameters changed iteratively with an error minimization al gorithm. The default atmospheric model uses single-scattering theory w ith a correction for multiple scattering based on lookup tables. With this model we used parameters of the proportions of three tropospheric aerosol types. For the default water content model we need the parame ters of the concentrations of chlorophyll, inorganic sediment, and gel bstoff. The diffuse attenuation and backscatter coefficients attribute d to these constituents are calculated and used to derive the water-le aving reflectance. Products include water-leaving reflectance, concent rations of water constituents, and aerosol optical depth and type. We demonstrate the application of the method to sea-viewing wide field-of -view sensor by using model data. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America