General exact Rayleigh scattering look-up-table for ocean color remote sensing

摘要

The current exact Rayleigh scattering calculation of ocean color remote sensing uses the look-up-table (LUT), which is created for a special remote sensor and cannot be applied to other sensors. For practical application, a general Rayleigh scattering LUT which can be applied to all ocean color remote sensors is produced. The vector radiative transfer equation (VRTE) in a plane-parallel atmosphere with the adding-doubling method is deduced and solved in detail. Comparing with the exact Rayleigh scattering radiance derived from MODIS exact Rayleigh scattering LUT, it is proved that the relative error of Rayleigh scattering calculation with the adding-doubling method is less than 0.25%, which meets the required accuracy of atmospheric correction of ocean color remote sensing. Therefore, the adding-doubling method can be used to generate the exact Rayleigh scattering LUT for ocean color remote sensors. Finally, with the adding-doubling method, the general exact Rayleigh scattering LUT is generated. On the basis of this general LUT, the calculated Rayleigh scattering radiance is tested by comparing with LUTs of MODIS, SeaWiFS and the other ocean color sensor, showing that relative errors are all less than 0.5%, and this general LUT can be applied to all ocean color remote sensors.