Comprehensive Comparison Performances of Landsat-8 Atmospheric Correction Methods for Inland and Coastal Waters

Atmospheric correction (AC) is a crucial step in the quantitative analysis of inland and coastal waters. In this study, the performances of six water-based AC methods (SeaDAS, ACOLITE-DSF/EXP, C2RCC, iCOR) were evaluated by using multiple global datasets (N = 139). Four evaluation strategies were applied including spectral similarity and Chlorophyll-a retrieval. The results showed that SeaDAS and ACOLITE-DSF performed the best in terms of analytical match, band ratios, Chlorophyll-a retrieval, and spectral similarity. SeaDAS had the lowest RMSE in the blue-green bands and showed good consistency across the spectral with the lowest median spectral angle of 7°. It should be noted that ACOLITE-DSF outperforms SeaDAS in high turbidity waters. SeaDAS coupled with Chlorophyll-a retrieval algorithms of OC3 and Clark had the lowest RMSE, which showed the advantage of SeaDAS in Chlorophyll-a retrieval. This study provides scientific basis for choosing AC methods of Landsat-8 data for aquatic environment monitoring.