Abstract

When remote sensing of the Earth's surface from high-altitude airplanes or satellites is considered, scattering and absorption effects of the atmosphere must be taken into account. Although these atmospheric effects constitute in most cases undesirable perturbations to the observed surface features, it is sometimes possible to use these effects to diagnose atmospheric conditions. Similarly, certain unique surface reflectance characteristics may also be useful as a surface feature identifier in addition to pattern recognition. Such a potential diagnostic tool may be available by observing the Heiligenschein over structured surfaces. However, atmospheric perturbations must be minimized or eliminated by atmospheric correction formalisms, and confusion with other retro-reflection effects, such as the glory, must be avoided.

© 1986 Optical Society of America