The optical properties of aerosols such as smoke from burning vary due to aging processes and these particles reach larger sizes at high concentrations. The objectives of this study are to develop and evaluate an algorithm for estimating atmospheric optical thickness from Landsat TM image. This study measured the sky transmittance at the ground using a handheld spectroradiometer in a wide wavelength spectrum to retrieve atmospheric optical thickness. The in situ measurement of atmospheric transmittance data were collected simultaneously with the acquisition of remotely sensed satellite data. The digital numbers for the three visible bands corresponding to the in situ locations were extracted and then converted into reflectance values. The reflectance measured from the satellite was subtracted by the amount given by the surface reflectance to obtain the atmospheric reflectance. These atmospheric reflectance values were used for calibration of the AOT algorithm. This study developed an empirical method to estimate the AOT values from the sky transmittance values. Finally, a AOT map was generated using the proposed algorithm and colour-coded for visual interpretation.

Date Published: 13 October 2008
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 7110, Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring, GIS Applications, and Geology VIII, 711019 (13 October 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.800067

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7110:
Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring, GIS Applications, and Geology VIII
Ulrich Michel; Daniel L. Civco; Manfred Ehlers; Hermann J. Kaufmann, Editor(s)