Practical Atmospheric Correction Algorithms for a Multi-Spectral Sensor From the Visible Through the Thermal Spectral Regions

Deriving information about the Earth's surface requires atmospheric corrections of the measured top-of-the-atmosphere radiances. One possible path is to use atmospheric radiative transfer codes to predict how the radiance leaving the ground is affected by the scattering and attenuation. In practice the atmosphere is usually not well known and thus it is necessary to use more practical methods. The authors will describe how to find dark surfaces, estimate the atmospheric optical depth, estimate path radiance and identify thick clouds using thresholds on reflectance and NDVI and columnar water vapor. The authors describe a simple method to correct a visible channel contaminated by a thin cirrus clouds