Near-Infrared Spectral Characteristics in Presence of Sun Glint Using CASI-1500 Data in Shallow Waters

Sun glint correction methods of hyperspectral data that have been developed so far have not considered the various situations and are often adequate for only certain conditions. Also there is an inaccurate assumption that the signal in NIR wavelength is zero. Therefore, this study attempts to analyze the NIR spectral properties of sun glint effect in coastal waters. For the analysis, CASI-1500 airborne hyperspectral data, bathymetry data and in-situ data obtained at coastal area near Sin-Cheon, Jeju Island, South Korea were used. The spectral characteristics of radiance and reflectance at the five NIR wavelengths (744 nm, 758 nm, 772 nm, 786 nm, and 801 nm) are analyzed by using various statistics, spatial and spectral variation of sun-glinted area under conditions of the bottom types of benthos, barren rocks and sand with similar water depth. Through the quantitative analysis, we found that the relation of water depth or bottom type with sun glint is relatively less which is a similar result with the previous studies. However the sun glint are distributed similarly with the patterns of the direction of wave propagation. It is confirmed that the areas with changed direction of wave propagation were not affected by the sun glint. The spatial and spectral variations of radiance and reflectance are mainly caused by the effect of sun glint and waves. The radiance or reflectance of more sun-glinted areas are increased approximately 1.5 times and the standard deviations are also increased three times compared to the less sun glinted areas. Through this study, the further studies of sun glint correction method in coastal water using the patterns of wave propagation and diffraction will be placed.