Quality control of automated hyperspectral remote sensing measurements from a seaborne platform

Abstract. In this study four data quality flags are presented for automated and unmanned above-water hyperspectral optical measurements collected underway in the North Sea, The Minch, Irish Sea and Celtic Sea in April/May 2009. Coincident to these optical measurements a DualDome D12 (Mobotix, Germany) camera system was used to capture sea surface and sky images. The first three flags are based on meteorological conditions, to select erroneous incoming solar irradiance (E_S) taken during dusk, dawn, before significant incoming solar radiation could be detected or under rainfall. Furthermore, the relative azimuthal angle of the optical sensors to the sun is used to identify possible sunglint free sea surface zones. A total of 629 spectra remained after applying the meteorological masks (first three flags). Based on this dataset, a fourth flag for sunglint was generated by analysing and evaluating water leaving radiance (L_W) and remote sensing reflectance (R_RS) spectral behaviour in the presence and absence of sunglint salient in the simultaneously available sea surface images. Spectra conditions satisfying "mean L_W (700–950 nm) < 2 mW m⁻² nm⁻¹ Sr⁻¹" or alternatively "minimum R_RS (700–950 nm) < 0.010 Sr⁻¹", mask the most measurements affected by sunglint, providing efficient flagging of sunglint in automated quality control. It is confirmed that valid optical measurements can be performed 0° ≤ Φ ≤ 360° although 90° ≤ Φ ≤ 135° is recommended.