Improving the description of sunglint for accurate prediction of remotely sensed radiances

Matteo Ottaviani, Robert Spurr, Knut Stamnes, Wei Li, Wenying Su, Warren Wiscombe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

The bidirectional reflection distribution function (BRDF) of the ocean is a critical boundary condition for radiative transfer calculations in the coupled atmosphere-ocean system. Existing models express the extent of the glint-contaminated region and its contribution to the radiance essentially as a function of the wind speed. An accurate treatment of the glint contribution and its propagation in the atmosphere would improve current correction schemes and hence rescue a significant portion of data presently discarded as "glint contaminated". In current satellite imagery, a correction to the sensor-measured radiances is limited to the region at the edge of the glint, where the contribution is below a certain threshold. This correction assumes the sunglint radiance to be directly transmitted through the atmosphere. To quantify the error introduced by this approximation we employ a radiative transfer code that allows for a user-specified BRDF at the atmosphere-ocean interface and rigorously accounts for multiple scattering. We show that the errors incurred by ignoring multiple scattering are very significant and typically lie in the range 10-90%. Multiple reflections and shadowing at the surface can also be accounted for, and we illustrate the importance of such processes at grazing geometries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2364-2375
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer
Volume109
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2008

Keywords

  • Aerosols
  • Atmospheric scattering
  • Multiple reflections
  • Ocean BRDF
  • Shadowing

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