Calibration of Satellite Low Radiance by AERONET-OC Products and 6SV Model

Abstract

For water quality monitoring using satellite data, it is often required to optimize the low radiance signal through the application of radiometric gains. This work describes a procedure for the retrieval of radiometric gains to be applied to OLI/L8 and MSI/S2A data over coastal waters. The gains are defined by the ratio of the top of atmosphere (TOA) reflectance simulated using the Second Simulation of a Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum—vector (6SV) radiative transfer model, REF, and the TOA reflectance acquired by the sensor, MEAS, over AERONET-OC stations. The REF is simulated considering quasi-synchronous atmospheric and aquatic AERONET-OC products and the image acquisition geometry. Both for OLI/L8 and MSI/S2A the measured TOA reflectance was higher than the modeled signal in almost all bands resulting in radiometric gains less than 1. The use of retrieved gains showed an improvement of reflectance remote sensing, Rrs, when with ACOLITE atmospheric correction software. When the gains are applied an accuracy improvement of the Rrs in the 400–700 nm domain was observed except for the first blue band of both sensors. Furthermore, the developed procedure is quick, user-friendly, and easily transferable to other optical sensors.