ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTIONS AND GROUND REFLECTANCE RECOVERY FOR AIRBORNE VISIBLE INFRARED IMAGING SPECTROMETER (AVIRIS) DATA - MAC-EUROPE-91

It is now well established that a valid atmospheric correction procedu re is required for a physically based analysis of measured high spectr al resolution remote sensing data. While the theory of radiative trans fer in the atmosphere is now well understood, remaining difficulties a re due to the inaccurate knowledge of the state of the atmosphere at t he time of acquisition. We have taken the opportunity of the MAC Europ e to compare two atmospheric correction procedures applied to Airborne Visible/infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data. Atmospheric cond ition estimates were acquired concurrently with the overflights. These in situ measurements were used to constrain the LOWTRAN-7 and 5S radi ative transfer codes to recover the spectral reflectance at ground lev el in the 400- to 2500-nm region. The influence of various input atmos pheric parameters such as aerosols and wafer vapor amounts on reflecta nce recovery is evaluated. The accuracy of the radiative transfer code based recovery is discussed using ground reflectance measurements acq uired at the Camargue site over sunflower, alfalfa, and wheat crops du ring the AVIRIS flights.