How MACCS estimates Aerosol Optical Depth.

=> I already explained in this blog  the principles of estimation of the aerosol optical thickness that we use to process the LANDSAT or SPOT5 (Take5) data, and soon Venµs or Sentinel-2 data, within the MACCS method developed at CESBIO, and used at CNES by THEIA. We started writing an article in 2010 to explain the method details and show the validation results, but we only found a sufficiently quiet period this autumn to finish it. The paper has just been published in remote sensing (MDPI), with open access. Enjoy your reading ! Hagolle, O.; Huc, M.; Villa Pascual, D.; Dedieu, G. A Multi-Temporal and Multi-Spectral Method to Estimate Aerosol Optical Thickness over Land, for the Atmospheric Correction of FormoSat-2, LandSat, VENμS and Sentinel-2 Images. Remote Sens. 2015, 7, 2668-2691.

From left to right, validation results for Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) measures by the multi-temporal method, the multi-spectral method and the combination of both. The combination of both methods allows to measure AOT in a much larger range of cases without degrading accuracy.