Effect of atmospheric interference and sensor noise in retrieval off optically active materials in the ocean by hyperspectral remote sensing

We present a method to construct the best linear estimate of optically active material concentration from ocean radiance spectra measured through an arbitrary atmosphere layer by a hyperspectral sensor. The algorithm accounts for sensor noise. Optical models of seawater and maritime atmosphere were used to obtain the joint distribution of spectra and concentrations required for the algorithm. The accuracy of phytoplankton retrieval is shown to be substantially lower than that of sediment and dissolved matter. In all cases, the sensor noise noticeably reduces the retrieval accuracy. Additional errors due to atmospheric interference are analyzed, and possible ways to increase the accuracy of retrieval are suggested, such as changing sensor parameters and including a priori information about observation conditions. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.