Atmospheric correction

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title: "Atmospheric correction" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["photographic-techniques", "satellite-imagery", "aerial-photography"] description: "Photographic image processing tecnhique" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_correction" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Photographic image processing tecnhique ::

Atmospheric correction is the process of adjusting images taken by satellite or airborne sensors to remove distortions caused by the atmosphere. These distortions—mainly due to the scattering and absorption of sunlight by particles and gases—can affect how accurately the sensor captures the true reflectance (or brightness) of the Earth's surface.{{cite web |url=http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/research/GC/atmo/index.html |title=Atmospheric Correction |access-date=2008-08-18 |publisher=University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080907082923/http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/research/GC/atmo/index.html| archive-date= 7 September 2008 | url-status= live}}

In remote sensing, atmospheric effects can significantly alter the spectral characteristics of the radiation detected by sensors. This occurs because light must pass through the atmosphere twice—first as sunlight traveling to the Earth's surface, and again as reflected light returning to the sensor—undergoing both absorption and scattering along the way. These distortions can affect the accuracy of surface reflectance measurements and are typically corrected through a range of physical and statistical methods.

Examples of atmospheric correction methods

::data[format=table title="Examples of atmospheric correction techniques for multispectral remote-sensing images, ordered chronologically to show the historical development of atmospheric correction methods in remote-sensing."]

Sensor	Approach
MSS	band-to-band regression
MSS	all-band spectral covariance
airborne MSS	band-to-band regression
AVHRR	iterative estimation
MSS, TM	DOS with exponential scattering model
TM	DOS with exponential scattering model, downwelling atmospheric radiance measurements
TM	pixel-by-pixel tasseled cap haze parameter
AVHRR	DOS, NDVI, AVHRR band 3
airborne TMS, Landsat TM	ground and airborne solar measurements, atmospheric modeling code
TM	comparison of ten DOS and atmospheric modeling code variations with field data
TM	dark target, modeling code
TM (all bands)	atmospheric modeling code, region histogram matching
TM	DOS with estimated atmospheric transmittance
TM	dark target, atmospheric modeling code
TM, ETM+	empirical line method, single target, ground measurements
TM	water reservoirs, comparison of 7 methods for 12 dates
AVHRR	2-band PCT used to separate aerosol components
::

References

References

1. (2014-10-01). "The Importance of Physical Quantities for the Analysis of Multitemporal and Multiangular Optical Very High Spatial Resolution Images". IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.
2. Schowengerdt, Robert. (2007). "Remote Sensing: Models and Methods for Image Processing". Elsevier Inc.
3. Schowengerdt, Robert. (2007). "Remote Sensing: Models and Methods for Image Processing". Elsevier Inc.
4. (1975). "On the determination of the haze levels from Landsat data". NASA United States.
5. (1981). "Estimation of atmospheric path radiance by the covariance matrix method". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing.
6. Potter, J. F.. (1984). "The channel correlation method for estimating aerosol levels from multispectral scanner data". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing.
7. (1986). "The estimation of atmospheric effects for SPOT using AVHRR channel-1 data". International Journal of Remote Sensing.
8. Chavez, P. S.. (1988). "An improved dark-object subtraction technique for atmospheric scattering correction of multispectral data". Remote Sensing of Environment.
9. Chavez, P. S.. (1989). "Radiometric calibration of Landsat Thematic Mapper multispectral images". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing.
10. Lavreau, J.. (1991). "De-hazing Landsat Thematic Mapper images". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing.
11. (1992). "Aerosol retrieval over land from AVHRR data - application for atmospheric correction". IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.
12. (1992). "Atmospheric correction of remotely sensed image data by a simplified model". Journal of Geophysical Research.
13. (1992). "Evaluation of simplified procedures for retrieval of land surface reflectance factors from satellite sensor output". Remote Sensing of Environment.
14. (1995). "On the dark target approach to atmospheric correction of remotely sensed data". Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing.
15. Richter, R.. (1996). "A spatially adaptive fast atmospheric correction algorithm". International Journal of Remote Sensing.
16. Chavez, P. S. Jr.. (1996). "Image-based atmospheric corrections-revisited and improved". Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::