2/1/2017 AtmosphericCorrection

AtmosphericCorrection

BeforeCorrectionAfterCorrection

TMimagery,colorcomposite(bands1,2,and3).

Remotelysensedimageryhasbeenusedfordevelopingandvalidatingvariousstudiesregardinglandcover
dynamicssuchasglobalcarbonmodeling,biogeochemicalcycling,hydrologicalmodeling,andecosystem
responsemodeling.However,thelargeamountsofimagerycollectedbythesatellitesarelargely
contaminatedbytheeffectsofatmosphericparticlesthroughabsorptionandscatteringoftheradiationfrom
theearthsurface.Theobjectiveofatmosphericcorrectionistoretrievethesurfacereflectance(that
characterizesthesurfaceproperties)fromremotelysensedimagerybyremovingtheatmosphericeffects.
Atmosphericcorrectionhasbeenshowntosignificantlyimprovetheaccuracyofimageclassification.

Thisproblemhasreceivedaconsiderableattentionfromresearchersinremotesensingwhohavedeviseda
numberofsolutionapproaches.Sophisticatedapproachesarecomputationallydemandingandhaveonly
beenvalidatedonaverysmallscale.Atmosphericcorrectionalgorithmsbasicallyconsistoftwomajorsteps.
First,theopticalcharacteristicsoftheatmosphereareestimatedeitherbyusingspecialfeaturesofthe
groundsurfaceorbydirectmeasurementsoftheatmosphericconstituentsorbyusingtheoreticalmodels.
Variousquantitiesrelatedtotheatmosphericcorrectioncanthenbecomputedbytheradiativetransfer
algorithmsgiventheatmosphericopticalproperties.Second,theremotelysensedimagerycanbecorrected
byinversionproceduresthatderivethesurfacereflectance.

WehavedevelopedanefficientalgorithmtoestimatetheopticalcharacteristicsoftheThematicMapper
(TM)imageryandtoremovetheatmosphericeffectsfromit.Ouralgorithmisdesignedbasedonlookup
tableapproachandrequireslessthan60minutestocorrectstandardTMimagewith50MPixelsperband
(300MPixelstotal)onanIBMRS6000workstation.

http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/labs/GC/atmo/ 1/4
2/1/2017 AtmosphericCorrection

Band1,BeforeCorrectionBand1,AfterCorrection

Band2,BeforeCorrectionBand2,AfterCorrection

Band3,BeforeCorrectionBand3,AfterCorrection

TMimagery(512X512).

http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/labs/GC/atmo/ 2/4
2/1/2017 AtmosphericCorrection

BeforeCorrectionAfterCorrection

TMimagery,colorcomposite(bands1,2,and4).

Wehavealsodevelopedaparallelversionofouralgorithmthatisscalable,I/Ooptimal,portableandhas
beenrunonavarietyofplatforms,includinganIBMSP1,anIBMSP2,aThinkingMachineCM5,andan
IntelParagon.

CurrentAreasofResearch:

Validation
OtherSensors

Publications:

H.FallahAdl,J.J'aJ'a,andS.Liang,FastAlgorithmsforEstimatingAerosolOpticalDepthof
ThematicMapper(TM)Imagery[PS].
H.FallahAdl,J.J'aJ'a,S.Liang,Y.J.Kaufman,andJ.Townshend,EfficientAlgorithmsfor
AtmosphericCorrectionofRemotelySensedData,ToappearinProceedingsSupercomputer'95,IEEE
ComputerSocietyPress,December1995[PS].

Faculty:
Dr.JosephJa'Ja'
Dr.ShunlinLiang

FacultyResearchAssistant:

Dr.SatyaKalluri

GraduateStudents:

HassanFallahAdl
ZengyanZhang

lastupdated11/3/95

http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/labs/GC/atmo/ 3/4
2/1/2017 AtmosphericCorrection

Thispagemaintainedby:

hfallaah@umiacs.umd.edu

http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/labs/GC/atmo/ 4/4