Features of Yellow Sand in SeaWiFS Data and Their Implication for Atmospheric Correction

Yellow sand event has been studied using SeaWiFS data in order to examine the aerosol optical characteristics in the Yellow Sea and their influences on the atmospheric correction for the ocean color remote sensing. Two SeaWiFS images of April 18 and April 25, 1998, representing Yellow Sand event and clear-sky case respectively, are selected for emphasizing the impact of high aerosol concentration on the ocean color remote sensing. It was shown that NASA's standard atmospheric correction algorithm treats yellow sand area as either too high radiance or cloud area, in which ocean color information is not generated. SeaWiFS aerosol optical thickness is compared with nearby ground-based sun photometer measurements and also is compared with radiative transfer simulation in conjunction with yellow sand model, examining the performance of NASA's atmospheric correction algorithm in case of the heavy dust event.