Atmospheric effect removal from space imagery

A method to derive a ground reflectance scene from space imagery by removing the contribution of atmospheric radiance was developed. The method utilizes a multiple scattering radiative transfer code to model the Earth-atmosphere system and converts the output into a set of quadratic coefficients which best fit the relationships between the upwelling radiance reaching the sensor and the lower boundary conditions of the ground reflectance. Pixel by pixel correction of the atmospheric effects is done by invoking these coefficients. The algorithm was applied to a number of Thematic Mapper and CZCS data to generate interesting ground scenes and was used to simulate space imagery from ground reflectance scenes.