Measurement of water-leaving radiance on smooth water surfaces at different viewing angles using high-resolution spectroradiometer

Abstract

This letter describes a method for calculating water-leaving radiance on smooth surfaces at different angles based on Fresnel law and the polarized measurements using an ASD FS3 spectroradiometer. The spectroradiometer is mounted on a goniometer so that it views the water surface from a height of several decimeters at different viewing angles through a linear polarizing filter. The incident angles equal the viewing angles. The water-leaving radiance spectra acquired by other methods are compared with the polarized measurements from the smooth water surface, and the radiance spectra obtained by the proposed method are found to be consistent with the results of the reference methods. The current study provides another effective technique for measuring water-surface reflectance via remote sensing. Moreover, the method does not avoid the sun glint during the detection of water-leaving radiance in cases where the viewing geometric position is clear. © 2012 Chinese Optics Letters.