Shi, W, Wang, MH (2007). Detection of turbid waters and absorbing aerosols for the MODIS ocean color data processing. REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT, 110(2), 149-161.

Abstract
Atmospheric correction for the ocean color products derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) uses two near-infrared (NIR) bands centered at 748 and 869 nm for identifying aerosol type and correcting aerosol contributions at the MODIS visible wavelengths. The ocean is usually assumed to be black for open oceans at these two NIR bands with modifications for the productive waters and aerosols are assumed to be non- or weakly absorbing. For cases with strongly absorbing aerosols and cases with the significant NIR ocean contributions, the derived ocean color products will have significant errors, e.g., the derived MODIS normalized water-leaving radiances are biased low considerably. Both cases lead to a significant drop of the sensor-measured radiance at the short visible wavelengths, and they both have similar and indistinguishable radiance characteristics at the short visible wavelengths. To properly handle such cases, the strongly absorbing aerosols and turbid waters need to be identified. Therefore, an appropriate approach (different from the standard procedure) may be carried out. In this paper, we demonstrate methods to identify the turbid waters and strongly absorbing aerosols using combinations of MODIS-measured radiances at the short visible, NIR, and short wave infrared (SWIR) bands. The algorithms are based on the fact that for the turbid waters the ocean has significantly large contributions at the NIR bands, whereas at the SWIR bands the ocean is still black due to much stronger water absorption. With detection of the turbid waters, the strongly absorbing aerosols can then be identified using the MODIS measurements at the short visible and NIR bands. We provide results and discussions for test and evaluation of the algorithm performance with various examples in the coastal regions for the turbid waters and for various absorbing aerosols (e.g., volcano ash plumes, dust, smoke). The proposed algorithms are efficient in the data processing, and can be carried out prior to the atmospheric correction procedure. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

DOI:
10.1016/j.rse.2007.02.013

ISSN:
0034-4257