Practical atmospheric correction of NOAA-AVHRR data using the bare-sand soil line method

Because it is very difficult to acquire atmospheric properties, a practical atmospheric correction algorithm, the bare-sand soil line method, was developed in this paper. There is a no change bare-sand soil line in the plane coordinate of channel 1 and channel 2 of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) for a given bare sand in a region. Because of the atmospheric effects on the remotely sensed data of AVHRR, the bare-sand soil line of the satellite differs from that of the ground. We correct the former to the latter using coordinate transformation, and obtain the average correction values of the whole image, DeltaR and DeltaNIR. Finally, all the data in the image can be corrected using DeltaR and DeltaNIR respectively. This method was researched in the Loess Plateau region, China (33degrees similar to 43degreesN and 102degrees similar to 112degreesE). The results indicate that the atmospheric correction for bare sand, grassland, forest and farmland have a satisfactory accuracy, except the channel 2 of water. This method can be used to correct the atmospheric effects on the remotely sensed data of AVHRR for any date in and and semi-arid regions.