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Validating In-Air Remote Sensing Reflectance Measurements During Cruises Using Reflectance Targets

Published

Author(s)

Bettye C. Johnson, Catherine C. Cooksey, Ahmed El-Habashi, David English, Georgi T. Georgiev, Sherwin Ladner, Veronica P. Lance, Michael Ondrusek, Ryan Vandermeulen

Abstract

Annual dedicated ocean color validation cruises off the East Coast of the USA were started in November 2014 with support from the NOAA office of Marine and Air Operations with primary focus on VIIRS/SNPP and upcoming JPSS missions. A portion of the activities involve derivation of remote sensing reflectance using in-air, handheld, radiometers and a white or gray diffuse reflectance standard to establish traceability to the SI. In November 2014 and December 2015, aboard the NOAA ship Nancy Foster, a blue reflectance target was measured in addition to the normal protocol of measuring the reflectance standard, the sky, and the water. The purpose was to investigate field methods for intercomparing instruments and protocols under the working hypothesis that the reflectance of the blue tile was stable in time, so all researchers should derive the same reflectance for this faux water target. Ideally, from methods such as these, we can separate instrumental sources of uncertainty from environmental sources of uncertainty. The blue target is not Lambertian and this affects the results. We report on the BRDF of the in-plane and out-of-plane measurements using two facilities and give some preliminary results for the 2014 and 2015 cruises.

Keywords

Ocean Color, Remote Sensing Reflectance, In-Air Ocean Color Radiometry, Validation

Citation

Johnson, B. , Cooksey, C. , El-Habashi, A. , English, D. , Georgiev, G. , Ladner, S. , Lance, V. , Ondrusek, M. and Vandermeulen, R. (2016), Validating In-Air Remote Sensing Reflectance Measurements During Cruises Using Reflectance Targets (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created October 25, 2016, Updated February 19, 2017