Evaluation of Near-UV/blue Aerosol Optical Thickness Retrieval from Airborne Hyperspectral Imagery

An aerosol retrieval algorithm is currently under development in scope of the upcoming APEX hyperspectral imager. It will be able to close the gap between global remote sensing and one-dimensional in situ measurements of atmospheric particles. This paper presents a feasibility study of the proposed APEX aerosol retrieval approach for hyperspectral imagery with high spatial resolution. The extraction of a sample aerosol optical thickness is done by fitting radiation transfer model results to measured at-sensor radiances at two near-UV/blue bands (394 and 404 nm) from the PHILLS imager. The PHILLS hyperspectral data are used to simulate the APEX Visible Near- Infrared detector and comprehend a dark surface reference target to avoid most uncertainties from the surface reflection contribution.