Evaluation of atmospheric correction procedures for ocean color data processing using hyper- and multi-spectral radiometric measurements from the Long Island Sound Coastal Observatory

In Ocean Color (OC) data processing one of the most critical steps is the atmospheric correction procedure used to separate the water leaving radiance, which contains information on water constituents, from the total radiance measured by space borne sensors, which contains atmospheric contributions. To ensure reliability of retrieved water leaving radiance values, and OC information derived from them, the quality of the atmospheric correction procedures applied needs to be assessed and validated. In this regard, the Long Island Sound Coastal Observatory (LISCO), jointly established by the City College of New York and the Naval Research Laboratory is becoming one of the key elements for OC sensors validation efforts, in part because of its capabilities for co-located hyper and multi-spectral measurements using HyperSAS and SeaPRISM radiometers respectively, with the latter being part of the NASA AERONET - OC network. Accordingly, the impact of the procedures used for atmospheric correction on the retrieval of remote sensing reflectance (R-rs) data can then be evaluated based on satellite OC data acquired from the LISCO site over the last two years. From this, the qualities of atmospheric correction procedures are assessed by performing matchup comparisons between the satellites retrieved atmospheric data and that of LISCO.