Atmospheric correction of satellite observations of ocean colour with the Navy aerosol model

Atmospheric correction of ocean colour is routinely achieved by fitting radiometric observations at near-infrared wavelengths to radiances predicted for a range of aerosol types. The best-fitting candidate aerosol model can then be used to compute radiances in the visible part of the spectrum, enabling an atmospheric correction to be applied there. The Navy Aerosol Model (NAM) is a multi-component aerosol model which may be suitable for this purpose. The components of NAM are closely tied to the physical processes which generate them and this allows for some expectation on the spatial homogeneity of the component optical depths. Presented is an atmospheric correction scheme based upon NAM and implemented for SeaWiFS. Some conclusions are drawn about the efficacy of extrapolating to visible wavelengths those estimates of aerosol type and amount made at near-infrared wavelengths.