The Adjacency Effect of Clouds in LANDSAT MSS Data

• Main Author: D'Entremont, Robert P.
• Other Authors: PHILLIPS LAB HANSCOM AFB MA
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1993
• Subjects: Meteorology; *PIXELS; *CLOUD COVER; REPRINTS; CUMULUS CLOUDS; BERING SEA; ATMOSPHERIC SCATTERING; SOLAR RADIATION; PE62101F; WUPL6670GR12; SBI1; FISCAL YEAR 94; LANDSAT; Bering Sea
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA271444; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA271444

The objective of this study is to determine the effect of clouds on clear Landsat pixels that are adjacent to cloudy pixels. A partly cloudy scene over a well-defined ocean background was analyzed and the effect of clouds on the clear pixels as a function of cloud amount was determined. The amount of scattering that occurs is proportional to the amount of cloud edges in the vicinity, which is proportional to cloud amount. For each non-cloudy pixel, the cloud fraction was computed in a 7x7 box using a simple threshold technique, and the average brightness in that box was compared with the brightness you would expect to measure if there was no scattering taking place.