Atmospheric correction for China's coastal water color remote sensing

The space satellite programs, such as CZCS/Nimbus- 7, VHRSR/FY - 1, OCTS/ADEOS and SeaWiFS/SeaStar, have demonstrated and proven that remote sensing is a powerful tool for understanding the spatial and temporal ocean color distribution. In general, there are two main techni cal keys in the processing ocean color satellite data. They are the atmospheric correction and the inver sion of water-leaving radiance into water constituents (such as chlorophyll, suspended material and yel low substance) quantitatively. The SeaWiFS (sea-viewing wide field-of-view sensor) atmospheric correc tion algorithm for China's coastal waters is discussed.First, the major advantages of SeaWiFS are introduced. Second, in view of the problems of the SeaDAS algorithm applying in China' s coastal waters, the local atmospheric correction algorithms are discussed and developed. Finally, the advantages of the loc al algorithms are presented by the compari son of the results from two different algorithms.