Computational study of atmospheric transfer radiation on an equatorial tropical desert (La Tatacoa, Colombia)

Abstract

Radiative transfer models explain and predict interaction between solar radiation and the different elements present in the atmosphere, which are responsible for energy attenuation. In Colombia there have been neither measurements nor studies of atmospheric components such as gases and aerosols that can cause turbidity and pollution. Therefore satellite images cannot be corrected radiometrically in a proper way. When a suitable atmospheric correction is carried out, loss of information is avoided, which may be useful for discriminating image land cover. In this work a computational model was used to find radiative atmospheric attenuation (300 1000nm wavelength region) on an equatorial tropical desert (La Tatacoa, Colombia) in order to conduct an adequate atmospheric correction.