A sun glint correction method for hyperspectral imagery containing areas with non-negligible water leaving NIR signal

Present sun glint removal methods overcorrect data collected in very shallow (less than 2 m) waters if the sensors used do not have bands in far infrared part of the spectrum. The reason is assuming of zero water leaving signal at near infrared (NIR) wavelengths. This assumption is not valid in very shallow waters, but also in areas where aquatic vegetation reaches water surface and in case of phytoplankton blooms that reach very high biomass or form surface scum. We propose an alternative method that can be used for successful glint removal even if the sensor does not have spectral bands beyond 800 nm. The proposed method utilises the presence and depth of the oxygen absorption feature near 760 nm as an indicator of glint contamination. This method allows removing sun glint from hyperspectral imagery preserving shape and magnitude of reflectance spectra in the cases where the negligible water leaving NIR signal is not valid. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.