Jimenez-Munoz, JC, Sobrino, JA, Mattar, C, Franch, B (2010). Atmospheric correction of optical imagery from MODIS and Reanalysis atmospheric products. REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT, 114(10), 2195-2210.
In this paper we analyze the differences obtained in the atmospheric correction of optical imagery covering bands located in the Visible and Near Infra-Red (VNIR), Short-Wave Infra-Red (SWIR) and Themal-lnfrared (TIR) spectral regions when atmospheric profiles extracted from different sources are used. In particular, three sensors were used, Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS), Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection radiometer (ASTER) and Landsat5 Thematic Mapper (TM), whereas four atmospheric profiles sources were considered: i) local soundings launched near the sensor overpass time, ii) Moderate Resolution Radiometer (MODIS) atmospheric profiles product (MOD07), iii) Atmospheric Correction Parameter Calculator (ACPC) generated by the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and iv) Modified Atmospheric Profiles from Reanalysis Information (MAPRI), which includes data from NCEP and National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Reanalysis project but interpolated to 34 atmospheric levels and resampled to 0.5 degrees x 0.5 degrees. MODIS aerosol product (MOD04) was also used to extract Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) values at 550 nm. Analysis was performed for three test dates (12th July 2003, 18th July 2004 and 13th July 2005) over an agricultural area in Spain. Results showed that air temperature vertical profiles were similar for the four sources, whereas dew point temperature profiles showed significant differences at some particular levels. Atmospheric profiles were used as input to MODTRAN4 radiative transfer code in order to compute atmospheric parameters involved in atmospheric correction, with the aim of retrieving surface reflectances in the case of VNIR and SWIR regions, and Land Surface Temperature (LST) in the case of the TIR region. For the VNIR and SWIR region, significant differences depending on the atmospheric profile used were not found, particularly in the Visible region in which the AOT content is the main parameter involved in the atmospheric correction. In the case of TIR, differences depending on the atmospheric profile used were appreciable, since in this case the main parameter involved in the atmospheric correction is the water vapor content, which depends on the vertical profile. In terms of LST retrieval from ASTER data (2004 test case), all profiles provided satisfactory results compared to the ones obtained when using a local sounding, with errors of 0.3 K for ACPC and MAPRI cases and 0.7 K for MOD07. When retrieving LST from TM data (2005 test case), errors for MOD07 and MAPRI were 0.6 and 0.9 K respectively, whereas ACPC provided an error of 2 K. The results presented in this paper show that the different atmospheric profile sources are useful for accurate atmospheric correction when local soundings are not available. In particular, MODO7 product provides atmospheric information at the highest spatial resolution, 5 km, although its use is limited from 2000 to present, whereas MAPRI provides historical information from 1970 to present, but at lower spatial resolution. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.