Patent ID: 7337065

Claim:
A method of correcting for atmospheric effects on a remote image of the Earth's surface taken from above, wherein the image comprises a plurality of images of the same scene each including a large number of pixels, each at a different wavelength band, and including infrared through visible wavelengths, comprising: a. providing a radiation transport model that relates spectral radiance to spectral reflectance via a set of parameters; b. providing a discrete number of trial aerosol visibility values for at least one of one or both of trial aerosol property values and aerosol types; c. using the radiation transport model to calculate the model parameter values for each of the trial aerosol visibility values; d. selecting image pixels having unknown reflectances but having one or more presumed, predefined ratios of reflectances among two or more specific wavelength bands; e. using the calculated model parameter values to determine the surface reflectance for the selected image pixels for each of the specific wavelength bands for each combination of trial visibility value and trial aerosol property value or values, or aerosol type; f. comparing the determined surface reflectances to the predefined ratio of reflectances; and g. resolving from the comparison a corrected image visibility value for each trial aerosol property value or values or aerosol type.