PROBLEM STATEMENT: ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTION OF OCEAN COLOR IMAGERY OVER TURBID COASTAL WATERS HAS ADVANCED SIGNIFICANTLY OVER THE PAST DECADE EITHER FROM SATELLITE-BASED SELF-TUNING OF THE NEAR-INFRARED (NIR) BANDS OR FROM USING THE SHORT-WAVE NIR BANDS SWIR). THUS FOR MOST WATER BODIES ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTION OF WELL-CALIBRATED OCEAN COLOR DATA CAN BE REGARDED AS VALID. HOWEVER FOR NEARSHORE AND INLAND WATERS THERE STILL REMAIN TWO PROBLEMS: 1. ABSORBING AEROSOLS WHICH AFFECT THE BLUE BANDS SIGNIFICANTLY; 2. LAND ADJACENCY EFFECTS WHICH AFFECT ALL SPECTRAL BANDS. THE LATTER EFFECTS CAN EXTEND FROM LAND TO SEVERAL KILOMETERS OFFSHORE LEADING TO QUESTIONABLE DATA FOR NEARSHORE PIXELS. ON THE OTHER HAND THESE PIXELS ARE MORE RELEVANT FOR SOCIETAL VALUES AND MANAGEMENT DECISION SUPPORT THAN OFFSHORE PIXELS. YET OUR KNOWLEDGE ON THE SEVERITY OF THE LAND ADJACENCY EFFECTS UNDER VARIOUS SCENARIOS IS VERY LIMITED NOT TO MENTION HOW TO MINIMIZE OR REMOVE THEM. SIMILARLY PIXELS ADJACENT TO CLOUDS ALSO SUFFER FROM THE CLOUD-ADJACENCY EFFECTS RESULTING IN 50% OF THE OCEAN DATA FLAGGED AS LOW QUALITY. OBJECTIVES: THE ULTIMATE GOALS OF THE PROJECT ARE TO DEVELOP LUTS TO QUANTIFY BRIGHT-TARGET ADJACENCY EFFECTS AND TO DEVELOP PRACTICAL APPROACHES TO MINIMIZE THESE EFFECTS WITH THE FOLLOWING SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: 1. CHARACTERIZE LAND AND CLOUD ADJACENCY EFFECTS UNDER VARIOUS SCENARIOS (TARGET SIZE AND ALBEDO SOLAR AND VIEWING GEOMETRY SATELLITE SCAN DIRECTION AEROSOLS ETC.) FOR MODIS AND SEAWIFS 2. DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT PRACTICAL APPROACHES TO MINIMIZE THESE EFFECTS 3. APPLY THE APPROACHES TO EXISTING SATELLITE DATA FOR ALGORITHM FINE TUNING AND VALIDATION 4. MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE SATELLITE OCEAN COLOR MISSIONS. TECHNICAL APPROACH: THE PROJECT WILL FOCUS ON MODIS AND SEAWIFS OBSERVATIONS AND THE FOLLOWING APPROACHES WILL BE USED TO ACHIEVE THE 4 OBJECTIVES RESPECTIVELY: 1. STATISTICS OF BRIGHT-TARGET ADJACENCY EFFECTS UNDER VARIOUS SCENARIOS FOR EACH SENSOR AND DETECTOR WILL BE GENERATED AND STORED IN LOOKUP TABLES (LUTS); 2. TWO METHODS WILL BE USED FOR THE CORRECTION OF THE BRIGHT-TARGET ADJACENCY EFFECTS OVER WATER. ONE IS BASED ON THE ESTABLISHED LUTS AND THE OTHER IS BASED ON EMPIRICAL CORRECTION USING ADJACENT STABLE TARGETS; 3. THE METHODS WILL BE APPLIED TO SEVERAL SELECTED TEST REGIONS WHERE BOTH IN SITU DATA AND CONSISTENCY MEASURES WILL BE USED TO VALIDATE AND FINE-TUNE THE METHODS; 4. BASED ON THESE RESULTS MAXIMUM RADIANCE AND OPTIMAL BANDS FOR CORRECTING LAND ADJACENCY EFFECTS WILL BE DETERMINED AND RECOMMENDED FOR FUTURE SENSORS. DELIVERABLES WILL INCLUDE TECHNICAL REPORTS AND REFEREED PUBLICATIONS COMPUTER CODES FOR ALGORITHMS AND TIME-SERIES PRODUCTS OVER SELECTED REGIONS TO ASSIST WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT. SIGNIFICANCE: THE PROJECT FITS SUB-ELEMENT 2.2.1 OF THIS RFP: ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTION. THE PROJECT ADDRESSES LAND-ADJACENCY CONTAMINATION TO SATELLITE SIGNAL WHICH REPRESENTS A SIGNIFICANT ERROR SOURCE FOR NEARSHORE AND INLAND WATERS. FUTURE NASA SATELLITE MISSIONS SUCH AS GEO-CAPE OR THOSE PLANNED BY THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY WILL ALL EMPHASIZE COASTAL ZONES AND INLAND WATERS. THUS A CORRECTION METHOD IS HIGHLY DESIRED FOR BOTH CURRENT AND FUTURE SENSORS. FURTHER THE CORRECTION WILL ALSO RECOVER CLOUD-ADJACENT LOW-QUALITY OFFSHORE PIXELS TO INCREASE DATA COVERAGE THUS REDUCING POTENTIAL ALIASING EFFECTS IN THE GLOBAL OCEAN COLOR DATA.