The Relationship Between the Size of Spatial Subsets of GER 63 Channel Scanner Data and the Quality of the Internal Average Relative Reflectance (IARR) Atmospheric Correction Technique

Abstract

Abstract This study examined spatial subsets derived from one flightline of Geophysical Environmental Research (GER) 63 channel scanner data from Makhtesh Ramon, Israel, to determine the relationship between the size of spatial subsets and the quality of the Internal Average Relative Reflectance (IARR) atmospheric correction technique. The IARR procedure was run separately on spatial subsets containing 100, 53, 24, 9, 3, 0·16 and 0·02 per cent of the original data set. The correction quality was determined by comparing the reflectance spectra derived from each subset for a site containing the mineral kaolinite. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) calculations illustrate that the raw data quality does not vary significantly from one subset to another. The quality of the correction was affected only by changes in the ‘average reference spectrum’ (ARS) associated with the selected subsets. The short-wave infrared (SWIR) region (1·440−2·443 μm) was found to be less sensitive to ARS changes than the visible (VIS) regi...