Piffalls in atmospheric correction of ocean color imagery: how should aerosol optical properties be computed?

Current methods for the atmospheric correction of ocean-color imagery rely on the computation of optical properties of a mixture of chemically different aerosol particles through combination of the mixture with it into an effective, single-particle component that has an average refractive index. However, a multi-component approach in which each particle type independently grows and changes its refractive index with increasing humidity is more realistic. Computations based on Mie theory and radiative transfer are used to show that the two approaches result in top-of-the-atmosphere radiances that differ more than the water-leaving radiance. Thus, proper atmospheric correction requires a multicomponent approach for the computation of realistic aerosol optical properties.