AN OPERATIONAL ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTION ALGORITHM FOR LANDSAT THEMATIC MAPPER IMAGERY OVER THE LAND

An operational atmospheric correction algorithm for Thematic Mapper (T M) imagery has been developed for both sequential and parallel compute r environments considering both aerosol and molecular scattering and a bsorption. The aerosol optical depth is estimated from the image itsel f using the dark object approach on a moving-window basis, and the sur face reflectance is then retrieved by searching lookup tables that are created using a numerical radiative transfer code. The dark object pi xels are identified and their surface reflectance estimated using TM c hannel 7 (2.1 mu m). A variety of techniques are employed to improve c omputational efficiency. This method is validated by measured aerosol optical depth and extensive visual evaluations accompanied by statisti cal analysis. Results indicate that the approach is highly stable and useful for both qualitative imagery interpretation (haze removal) and quantitative analysis. Future research activities are also highlighted . The computer codes are available to the general scientific community .