Dear colleagues!
My question is about Channel 1 of Landsat 8 supposed to visualise coastal aerosols. I cannot find any evidence that such valuable information, as coastal aerosols ( anyway, such wavelength range), is included in analysis in available soft.
I'm very interested, how it can be used and by what soft? Can it really provide better results?
Dear Maria,
Band 1 of the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) instrument is labeled "Coastal aerosol", but that does not mean that this channel, on its own, provides any information on aerosols: it is just a measurement in the "deep blue" spectral region that can be used, in conjunction with other channels, to retrieve information on aerosols. The band label is very poorly chosen, though scattering of solar radiation by aerosols in the atmosphere does indeed increase significantly when the wavelength of the radiation shortens.
You should consult books and articles on the characterization of atmospheric aerosols based on the inversion of radiation transfer models against multispectral measurements for input on how to perform this task and retrieve information on aerosols.
For an introduction to these concepts and techniques, consult
Jacqueline Lenoble (Editor) (1986) Radiative Transfer in Scattering and Absorbing Atmospheres.
Jacqueline Lenoble (1993) Atmospheric Radiative Transfer, Deepak Publisher.
Thomas and Stamnes (2002) Radiative Transfer in the Atmosphere and Ocean, Cambridge University Press.
K. N. Liou (2002) An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation, Volume 84, Second Edition, Academic Press.
A somewhat simpler approach to aerosol characterization is to estimate the Ångström exponent from two spectral bands, and then relate that value to the aerosol type. See, for instance,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angstrom_exponent
Alternatively, you should collaborate with a research group that can retrieve this information for you and provide you directly with aerosol products (rather than just radiance measurements at the entrance of satellite instruments).
Cheers, Michel.
Dear Michael,
Thank you for the detailed answer and interesting references! I expected the answer like yours but every your answer gives a ton of additional useful information.
THANK YOU A LOT!
Band 1 of the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) instrument is labeled "Coastal aerosol", mapping of chlorophyll, SPM etc
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Geoscience
- Atmospheric Sciences
- Atmosphere