The objective of this study was to identify and implement solutions to the short comings of atmospheric correction schemes for geostationary satellites for ocean applications and consolidate the related Geo-Oculus requirements.
As stated in the Statement of Work (SOW), the main new challenge for atmospheric correction over ocean from the geostationary orbit is to provide accurate marine reflectances for conditions of high viewing zenith angle (VZA) and high sun zenith angle (SZA). According to the state of knowledge at the beginning of this activity, as described in the SOW, there was a particular concern about the limitations of the plane parallel atmosphere (PPA) assumption and a recommendation, following Ding and Gordon (1994), for using radiative transfer simulations based on the spherical shell approximation (SSA).