Spacecraft Recovery & Remote Sensing, Volume. 46, Issue 4, 101(2025)

Data-Driven Atmospheric Corrections for Multi-Spectral Satellite Remote Sensing

Yutang YU1,2,3, Tao YU1,3, Donghai XIE4, Yu WU5, Lili ZHANG1,3、*, and Xin ZUO6
Author Affiliations
  • 1Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
  • 2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 3Demonstration Center for Spaceborne Remote Sensing, China National Space Administration, Beijing 100101, China
  • 4College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100089, China
  • 5School of Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
  • 6Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics & Electricity, Beijing 100094, China
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    The radiative transfer coupling between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere is highly complex, resulting in limitations in the accuracy and efficiency of traditional atmospheric correction techniques. Empirical linear methods offer relatively high computational efficiency but suffer from low precision, while radiative transfer model-based approaches achieve higher accuracy at the cost of substantial computation, restricting the quantitative application of multi-spectral satellite remote sensing. With the development of neural networks, integrating physical models with data-driven approaches has provided new vision for atmospheric correction. This study proposes a deep neural network framework trained on datasets simulated by radiative transfer models, which not only ensures correction accuracy but also significantly improves processing efficiency. First, radiative transfer model is used to simulate satellite top-of-atmosphere radiance under different observation geometries and atmospheric–surface conditions, thereby constructing a forward-simulated multi-spectral remote sensing dataset for data-driven atmospheric correction. The neural network then learns the geographic, geometric, and spectral characteristics embedded in the dataset to achieve pixel-level atmospheric correction. The study demonstrate that the proposed method achieves an average absolute error of 0.028 and a relative error of 0.82 compared to pixel-wise correction using radiative transfer models, while improving processing speed by approximately six orders of magnitude. Compared with mainstream physical-model-based methods in terms of image quality, quantitative metrics, and consistency with in-situ measured vegetation spectra, the proposed method performs favorably. This research provides an efficient atmospheric correction pathway for the quantitative application of multi-spectral remote sensing imagery.

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    Yutang YU, Tao YU, Donghai XIE, Yu WU, Lili ZHANG, Xin ZUO. Data-Driven Atmospheric Corrections for Multi-Spectral Satellite Remote Sensing[J]. Spacecraft Recovery & Remote Sensing, 2025, 46(4): 101

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    Paper Information

    Category: Remote Sensing Information Processing Technology

    Received: Nov. 20, 2024

    Accepted: --

    Published Online: Sep. 12, 2025

    The Author Email: Lili ZHANG (zhangll203913@aircas.ac.cn)

    DOI:10.3969/j.issn.1009-8518.2025.04.009

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