Atmospheric correction of multispectral satellite images based on the approximate model of the solar radiation transfer
A model of the solar radiation transfer in the Earth's atmosphere is developed for explicit calculations of the transfer characteristics of the atmosphere (reflectance, transmission, and spherical albedo) in its visible and near-IR transparency windows depending on the surface air pressure (or terrain elevation), the aerosol optical parameters, and angles indicating the position of the Sun and the satellite system with respect to the Earth's target. The model is based on the spectrally dependent approximations obtained using the atmospheric radiative transfer code DISORT. The sensitivity of underlying surface spectral albedo retrieval from top-of-atmosphere reflectance to vertical distribution of atmosphere optical parameters is investigated. The algorithm is designed for the atmospheric correction of multispectral satellite images with the developed model and applied to MERIS instrument (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer). It is shown that accounting of optical properties of the atmosphere and adjacency effects in the processing of satellite images substantially improves visibility of underlining surface targets and rendering their spectral reflectance parameters