Skip to main content

METHODS article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Ocean Observation
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1495793

Assessment of Atmospheric Correction Methods in MSI Imagery for Deriving Bathymetry and Substrates of Shallow-Water Coral Reefs

Provisionally accepted
Huang Wei Huang Wei 1,2,3,4Jun Zhao Jun Zhao 2Mingjie Li Mingjie Li 1,3,4Shaojie Sun Shaojie Sun 2*
  • 1 South China Sea Environmental Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration, Guangzhou, China
  • 2 School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai Campus, Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China
  • 3 Technology Innovation Center for South China Sea Remote Sensing, Surveying and Mapping Collaborative Application, Ministry of Natural Resources,, Guangzhou, China
  • 4 Nansha Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Guangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Accurate atmospheric correction (AC) is a key procedure for monitoring coral reef habitat in shallow waters via remote sensing techniques. In this study, three commonly used AC processors -Dark Spectrum Fitting (DSF), Case 2 Regional Coast Color processor (C2RCC), and Polymer-were applied to evaluate their performance on Sentinel-2 MSI imagery of coral reef shallow waters in the Xisha Islands, South China Sea. Since the latter two processors incorporate a sun glint removal approach, additional procedures were applied to DSF. These include short-wave infrared band's Glint Correction (GC), DeGlint (DG), and near-infrared band intercept (DG865) algorithms to enhance glint correction after the DSF processor. The results demonstrate that Polymer outperforms the DSF method (either standalone or with glint corrections) and C2RCC.Polymer-derived remote sensing reflectance showed well agreement with in situ measurements, with R 2 > 0.95 in 3-hour match and R 2 > 0.65 in 6-hour match in visible band (443nm-665nm). It effectively removed most of the glint contamination in the NIR bands (740nm,783nm) while revealing contributions from bottom reflections. Under various image conditions, Polymer consistently delivered the highest bathymetry accuracy (R 2 : 0.51 -0.85) and the most stable substrate classifications. This study underscores the critical role of accurate AC in retrieving bathymetry and coral reef substrate information from optically shallow waters using medium-to high-resolution MSI imagery. Polymer

    Keywords: Atmospheric correction (AC), Sentinel-2 MSI, coral reefs, Optically shallow water, sunglint correction

    Received: 13 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wei, Zhao, Li and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shaojie Sun, School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai Campus, Zhuhai, 519082, Guangdong Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.