System Vicarious Calibration and Atmospheric Correction of the Airborne Watersat Imaging Spectrometer Experiment

Abstract

We present the vicarious calibration and validation of atmospheric correction for the airborne Watersat Imaging Spectrometer Experiment (WISE) sensor, deployed over the south-west shores of Anticosti Island (Gulf of Saint Lawrence). Coincident in situ water-leaving reflectance was acquired from the research vessel Coriolis II (HyperSAS, above-water radiometry) and from a jet-ski (underwater radiometry). The HyperSAS Hyperspectral Surface Acquisition System dataset was used for calibration, while the jet-ski dataset was split into 30% calibration and 70% validation. We evaluated Ratio and Empirical Line (EL) calibration approaches and investigated the influence of residual sun glint. Modeled vs. measured at-sensor reflectance residuals show a clear dependence on angular distance to the specular direction, demonstrating that geometry-dependent glint bias affects vicarious gain estimation. The Ratio approach performs adequately with a limited calibration range (∼50% accuracy at 500 nm) but degrades when applied to a broader matchup dataset. In contrast, the EL method provides more stable gains by accommodating both additive and multiplicative discrepancies (∼20% accuracy at 500 nm). These results highlight the importance of accounting for residual sun glint in airborne aquatic imaging spectroscopy (for calibration or other purposes) and support the EL with Standard Major Axis regression as the most robust calibration strategy for quantitative retrieval of water-leaving reflectance from WISE.