Radiometric corrections

In the previous topic, radiometric and geometric distortions are introduced. Now, more
about the errors and their correction methods is discussed.
It is obvious that the observed energy by the onboard sensor does not coincide with the
energy emitted or reflected from the same object which is on the earth surface. This is
due to the measurements taken by the sensors are affected by the two source of errors
1. Errors induced by the sensors itself by mechanical and or electronic errors
!. Errors induced by the atmosphere
"ome corrections are already applied when you buy the data, depending on the so#called
pre#processing level. "ome corrections are carried out at the ground receiving stations.
$owever, sometimes still need the pre#processing. Therefore, it is bit difficult to decide
what should be included under the pre#processing because the definition of what is or not
errors in the data. %lso, it is depending on the user to which those data are to be put.
&or an e'ample, discrimination between land cover types in an area at a particular point
in time( the investigator will be interested in relative rather than absolute values and thus
atmospheric correction would be seen to be unnecessary.
1. Corrections for sensor induced errors
)ropped line replacement
*efer +dropped signals, to understand the error. -orrection is a cosmetic procedure in
which data from neighborhood pi'els or correlated band is used.
.art of the image affected by .eriodic line drop outs and corrected image is shown above
-orrection can be applied as(
1. *eplacement by the line above and below
!. *eplacement by the average of the line above and the line below
/. *eplacement by using another, highly correlated spectral band
E.g.0
1riginal image 2part of3

j-1 10 12 11 14 18 38 20 21 24
j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
j+1 8 9 8 10 12 12 13 36 14

-orrelated band 2same part3

j-1 20 21 20 27 34 74 39 41 48
j 19 19 18 25 29 29 71 40 46
j+1 16 19 17 20 22 24 27 70 27

1. *eplacement by the line above and below
-opy the values of the line above or line below. This method is based on concept of
spatial auto#correlation of physical phenomenon, which means that neighboring
measuring is correlated.
4eneral formulae can be denoted as,
%bove0 1 , ,
=
j i j i
V V

j-1 10 12 11 14 18 38 20 21 24
j 10 12 11 14 18 38 20 21 24
j+1 8 9 8 10 12 12 13 36 14

5elow0 1 , , +
=
j i j i
V V
6 . 7
11 . 16
=
=

87 . 16
9/ . /1
=
=

j-1 10 12 11 14 18 38 20 21 24
j 8 9 8 10 12 12 13 36 14
j+1 8 9 8 10 12 12 13 36 14

:here0 column number ; i, raw number ; j
!. *eplacement by the average of the line above and the line below
*eplace the < 2or !883 values of the dropped line by the average of the value in the line
above and the vale line below. %lso this method is based on the concept of spatial auto
correlation.
&ormulae can be denoted as,
! = 3 2
1 , 1 , 1 , +
+ =
j i j i j i
V V V

j-1 10 12 11 14 18 38 20 21 24
j 9 10 10 12 15 25 16 28 19
j+1 8 9 8 10 12 12 13 36 14

/. *eplacement by using another, highly correlated spectral band
This method is comparable to the average method, but in addition it uses the data of the
spectrally highly correlated band of the same data set. This band is only available if the
data set is a multi spectral one. The method relies on the fact that measurement in two or
more bands of one data set are often correlated.
&or e.g.0 >andsat ?"" @ A 8 bands,
>andsat ?"" 6 A B bands
If some data is lost in band @, then can be used band 8 to correct band @.
4eneral formulae is in the form of,
[ ]
!
3 2
3 ! = 2
, 1 , , 1 ,
, 1 , , 1 , , , , ,
k j i k j i
r j i r j i r j i
r
k
k j i
V V
V V V V
+
+
+
+ +

:here

0 "tandard deviation
V 0 *adiometric value
j i,
0 -olumn, line
r 0 *eference or correlated band
k 0 5and with dropped line

j-1 10 j-1 20
j 0 j 19
j+1 8 j+1 16

Ci,j,k ; 7.6=16.87D19#E16F!<G=!HFD7F1<H=!
<.8176F9
9.8176 1<
$ence, Ci,j,k can be replaced by 1<.

j-1 10 12 11 14 18 38 20 21 24
j 10 10 9 13 16 15 36 16 23
j+1 8 9 8 10 12 12 13 36 14

%dvantages and disadvantages
Method Advantage Disadvantage
*eplacement simple, auto correlation looks artificial
%verage
really simple, looks less
artificial
blurs borders
-orrelation
preserves geometric
structure
really comple', need
correlated band
)e#stripping
*efer stripped signals to understand the error.
The different correction methods are motivated by the following reasons.
# The visual appearance of the imagery is improved, so that the images are
easier to interpret.
# %fter correction, eIual pi'el values can be seen in homogeneous object areas.
Cariation in sensor sensitivity lead to have different gain and offset for each sensor is the
reason for striping errors.
The main correction methods are,
1. 1ff#set and gain correction using calibration data
!. 1ff#set and gain correction using reference data 2linear and parametric
histogram matching3
/. Non#linear and non#parametric histogram matching
"eparate histograms corresponding to each detector unit are constructed and matched.
Taking one response as standard, the gain 2rate of increase of )N3 and offset 2relative
shift of mean3 for all other detector units are suitably adjusted, and new )N#values are
computed and assigned. In this way, the function is merely a replacement operation.
%ll these methods apply the >ook Jp Table 2>JT3 techniIue, which is convenient and
fast way to implement many image processing functions.
2. Correction for atmospheric induced errors
The solar radiation is absorbed or scattered by the atmosphere during transmission to the
ground surface, while the reflected or emitted radiation from the target is also absorbed or
scattered by the atmosphere before it reaches to a sensor. The ground surface received not
only the direct solar radiation but also sky light, or scattered radiation from the
atmosphere. % sensor will receive not only the direct reflected or emitted radiation from a
target, but also the scattered radiation from the target and the scattered radiation from the
atmosphere, which is called path radiance or haKe. %tmospheric correction is used to
remove these effects.
Scattering
There are two main types of scattering
*eceived energy level
1=.
4ain is changed
-orrect one
1ffset is changed
Selective
Non-selective
The former is wave length dependent, where as the latter is not. &urther more there are
two types of selective scattering.
Rayleigh scattering
Mie scattering
Rayleigh scattering predominates where electromagnetic radiation interacts with particles
that are smaller than the wavelength of the incoming light. Tiny specks of dust, N1! and
1! molecules are some e'amples. The scattering effect is inversely proportional to
3 = 1 0 1 2
@ @
. )ue to *ayleigh effect, the shorter wavelengths are overestimated. In color
photography, the effect leads to have blueness images.
Mie scattering occurs when the wavelength of the incoming radiation is similar in siKe to
the atmospheric particles 2or siKe of particle is <.1 to 1<
m
3 and is caused by smoke,
dust and salt particles. The effect is inversely proportional to
B . <
to
!

B . <
= 1 0 1 2 to
3 = 1 0 1
!
.
The non selective scattering occurs when the particle siKe is much larger than the
radiation wavelength 2or siKe of particles L 1<
m
3, water droplets and ice#fragments and
fog are typical e'amples for that.
The ground truth is reIuired for proper correction. -orrection is definitely in multi
temporal studies.
$aKe correction
"cattered light reaching the sensor from the atmosphere without being reflected from the
surface is called haKe or path radiance. The effect is to increase the photon count in 1
st
order approach. "o haKe is an additive effect, reducing the contrast in the images.
The relationship between radiance received at a sensor about the atmosphere and radiance
leaving from the ground surface is,
P tot S
L T H L + =
:here0
tot
H
# Total down welling radiance in a specified spectral band

# *eflectance of the target

2i.e.0
radians Upwelling
radians g Downwellin
M
M
3
T # %tmospheric transmittance
P
L # The haKe contribution 2wavelength dependent3
s
L
# *adiance received by the sensor
Note0

P
L
The haKe value is different for different spectral bands. It is highest in the blue range
while the lowest in the I* range of the spectrum. The correction is very simple. Estimate
the haKe correction for each band and subtract this value from all measurements. Two
methods are used to estimate this value.
a3 "ingle band method
-ompute histogram for the full image. :hich is generally contains some area of low
reflectance. The lowest pi'el value in the
histogram is a 1
st
appro'imation to the haKe
contribution, and this minimum value is
subtracted from the respective image.
E.g(
&igure shows the areas with )N as < or 1 in T? B. The histogram of T? B has pi'els with < where as
the histogram of T? 1 lacks the pi'el in the range from < to !< appro'imately because of light
scattered into the detector by atmosphere thus this abrupt increase in pi'els in T? 1 is subtracted from
all the )Ns in band 1 to restore effects of atmospheric scattering
b3 Total absorption method
E.g. total shadow, clear deep water in NI* band
Note0 not necessary any ground samples
"ubtract value +', from all pi'el values
&ind the samples with total absorbtion are lower. Then, subtract the average value
from all the pi'els
"kylight correction
*efer skylight in previous note to understand the error.
-orrection for this effect reIuires additional information that cannot be e'tracted from
the image data itself. This information is difficult to obtain and needs to be later input
into a numerical model, the details of which are beyond the scope of this cause.
$owever, correction is definitely reIuired in multi#temporal studies. In this situation
stable features 2in time3 can be selected as reference samples. &or both days if the sample
2average3 does not have an eIual value, the multiplication value can be e'tracted from
linear regression techniIues. "kylight correction is not eliminated but eIualiKed for the
two days.
"un angle correction
"un angle correction becomes more important
when one wants to generate mosaics taken at
different times or perform change detection
studies.
%n absolute correction involves as formulated
below.
3 2 Sin
DN
N D =
:here, )N is the input pi'el value, )N is the output pi'el value, and is the solar
elevation angle.
:hen multi#temporal data sets of the same area are available, a +relative, sun angle
correction can be performed. In such case, the image with higher sun elevation angle is
taken as a reference and the radiometric values of the other image are adjusted to it. The
multiplication factor can be calculated per spectral bands using stable reference samples.