Multispectral visible/near-infrared (VNIR) earth observation satellites, e.g., Ikonos, Quickbird, ALOS AVNIR-2, and DMC, usually acquire imagery in a few (3 - 5) spectral bands. Atmospheric correction is a challenging task for these images because the standard methods require at least one shortwave infrared band (around 1.6 or 2.2 µm) or hyperspectral instruments to derive the aerosol optical thickness. New classification metrics for defining cloud, cloud over water, haze, water, and saturation are presented to achieve improvements for an automatic processing system. The background is an ESA contract for the development of a prototype atmospheric processor for the optical payload AVNIR-2 on the ALOS platform.
Keywords: Aerosol retrieval; cloud; haze; surface reflectance; water.