Clear water radiances for atmospheric correction of coastal zone color scanner imagery

The possibility of computing the inherent sea surface radiance for regions of clear water from coastal zone color scanner (CZCS) imagery given only a knowledge of the local solar zenith angle is examined. The inherent sea surface radiance is related to the upwelling and downwelling irradiances just beneath the sea surface, and an expression is obtained for a normalized inherent sea surface radiance which is nearly independent of solar zenith angle for low phytoplankton pigment concentrations. An analysis of a data base consisting of vertical profiles of upwelled spectral radiance and pigment concentration, which was used in the development of the CZCS program, confirms the virtual constancy of the normalized inherent sea surface radiance at wavelengths of 520 and 550 nm for cases when the pigment concentration is less than 0.25 mg/cu m. A strategy is then developed for using the normalized inherent sea surface radiance in the atmospheric correction of CZCS imagery.