Algorithm for automatic atmospheric corrections to visible and near-IR satellite imagery

An algorithm for automatic atmospheric correction of satellite imagery of the earth's surface is proposed which is applicable to low-resolution and high-resolution imagery of land areas. The algorithm is based on the satellite image being corrected and on the climatology of the area, and it requires that some pixels in the image correspond to dense dark vegetation as the surface cover. The algorithm is sensitive to the assumed reflectance of the dense dark vegetation, and the accuracy of the corrected surface reflectance is expected to be + or - 0.01. Using the method, aerosol optical thicknesses were derived from clear and hazy Landsat MSS images in the Washington, D.C. and Chesapeake Bay region, and the results are found to agree well with simultaneous sunphotometer ground measurements.