The Effect of Sunglint on Satellite-Based Benthic Habitat Identification

Abstract: Benthic habitat mapping using high spatial resolution image exhibits several issues. One of the issues is the occurrence of sunglint on water surface which alter intra habitat spectral variation recorded by the sensor. Prior to further image analysis, sunglint should be removed to avoid any spectral and radiometric confusion. This study aimed at removing sunglint from Quickbird image and analyzes the effect of sunglint on altering benthic habitat spectral variation. Infrared (IR) band was used to normalize the variation of sunglint on visible bands. In order to analyze habitat’s spectral variation due to sunglint, coefficient of variation analysis was performed on raw and corrected Quickbird image. The results showed that NIR band was very effective to remove sunglint from visible bands. In addition, we found out that an average of 64.3% variation within particular habitat class was due to sunglint. Furthermore, we also found that sunglint correction reveals inherent information about benthic habitat that has been previously covered by sunglint.

Keywords: benthic habitat, Quickbird, sunglint, coefficient of variation