OLI image atmospheric correction sensitivity to altitude, visibility and acquisition geometry

Atmospheric effects can damage surface information extraction from satellite images and correction using physically based models is a way to minimize these effects. This paper presents a sensitivity analysis of atmospheric correction of an OLI image using a base case from which the surface altitude, horizontal visibility and viewing geometry were varied. Results show that viewing geometry, target altitude and horizontal visibility affects the ground reflectance retrieval, mainly in the visible bands. Atmospheric effects decreased from the backscattering to the forward scattering while it decreased as target altitude increased. It is concluded that the use of average values of these correction parameters can be a problem when performing the atmospheric correction. It is recommended that care should be taken when using average values and preferably use correction that takes into account the within image variations of these parameters.