The monograph being proposed for the English-speaking research community is concentrated on the atmospheric correction of satellite images as a part of thematic interpretation procedures while processing remote sensing data. For linguistic reasons a large section of the community may have been unaware of the progress made in Russia in this field of science and technology. Meanwhile, Russia was the first country to launch the first artificial satellite in 1957 and to obtain from space for the first time spectra of the Earth's atmosphere in the 1960's. New applications of the radiation transfer theory for the atmosphere­ underlying surface system appeared first in Russia in the 1970's. Direct and in­ verse problems of the atmospheric optics were then formulated giving the scientific basis for studies of natural resources from space. Since that time new mathematical treatments for the atmospheric correction procedures have been widely developed in Russia, including both analytical and numerical tech­ niques to simulate spectral, angular, and spatial distributions of the outgoing radiation in visual and infrared regions. The authors of the book were at the beginning of the scientific approach. A wide range of mathematical im­ provements to elaborate polinomial approximations for dependencies between atmospheric radiation field and parameters of space surveying was due to the necessity to process satellite images in real time using special software of ex­ isted computer means for the studies.

1 Optical-Physical Models of Atmospheric Aerosol.- 1.1 Complex Optical Models of Atmospheric Aerosol.- 1.2 Application of Mie Theory in Determining the Optical Parameters of Atmospheric Aerosol.- 1.3 Closed Modeling of the Optical Characteristics of Atmospheric Aerosol.- 2 The Radiation-Environment Interaction.- 2.1 Basic Definitions in Photometry.- 2.2 Equations of Interaction Between Radiation and Randomly Inhomogeneous Media.- 2.3 The Filtering Role of the Optical Radiation Sensors.- 2.4 Coherence Functions.- 2.5 The Structure of the Brightness Field and the Structuring of Computation Programs.- 2.6 Partially Coherent Waves Coherence Matrices.- 3 Theoretical Models of the Non-Polarized Optical Radiation in the Atmosphere-Surface System.- 3.1 Justification of the Necessity to Consider the Distorting Effect of the Atmosphere when Surveying the Earth from Space.- 3.2 Calculating Facilities of the Analytical and Numerical Methods of the Radiation Transfer Theory.- 3.3 Setting the Problem of Theoretical Determination of Scalar Asymptotic Transfer Functions of the Atmosphere.- 3.4 An Accurate Solution for the Problem of Diffused Reflection and Transmission of Light by the Terrestrial Atmosphere for Model Phase Functions.- 3.5 Algorithm to Determine the Azimuthal Harmonics of ?m and ?m Brightness Coefficients.- 3.6 Linear Integral Equations for Basic Functions.- 3.7 Application of the Specular Reflection Principle in the Theory of Radiation Transfer.- 3.8 The Meaning in Probability Terms of Basic $$\Omega _{\text{i}}^{\text{m}} $$ and $$\theta_{\text{i}}^{\text{m}} $$ Functions.- 3.9 Accurate Expressions for the Azimuthal Harmonics of Brightness Coefficients ?m and ?m for an Approximating Three-Term Phase Function (m = 0,1,2).- 3.10 Atmospheric Albedo, Spherical Albedo and Irradiance of the Planetary Surface.- 3.11 Approximate Expressions for the Coefficients of Diffused Reflection and Transmission with an Arbitrary Phase Function.- 3.12 Determination of the Parameters of the Radiation Field with the Use of an Advanced Method of Spherical Harmonics.- 4 A One-Dimensional Scalar Transfer Function of the Atmosphere.- 4.1 Theoretical Assessment of the Spectral Transfer Function for the Brightnesses of a Horizontally Homogeneous Surface.- 4.2 On the Solution of Inverse Problems of Space-Based Atmospheric Optics for Model Phase Functions.- 4.3 Tabulating Basic Constituents of the Scalar Transfer Function of an Aerosol Atmosphere.- 4.4 The Effect of the Non-Orthotropic Surface on the Radiation Field.- 4.5 Results of Numerical Modeling of the Background Spectral Transfer Functions.- 4.6 Diagrams of an Optimization of the Transforming Effect of the Atmosphere when Surveying the Earth from Space.- 4.7 The Geographical and Seasonal Distribution of the Transfer Function Monochromatic Values.- 4.8 The Effect of Atmospheric Haze on the Colour of Natural Formations.- 4.9 An Assessment of the Polarization Transfer Function of the Atmosphere.- 4.10 The Effect of the Atmosphere on the Spectral Albedo of Natural Formations.- 4.11 The Geographical and Seasonal Change of the Transfer Function for Albedo.- 5 The Effect of Horizontal Inhomogeneities of the Underlying Surface on the Scalar Transfer Function of the Atmospheric.- 5.1 Setting the Problem of Theoretical Estimation of a 2-Dimensional (2-D) Atmospheric Transfer Function.- 5.2 The Effect of the Atmospheric Optical Parameters and of the Conditions of Survey on a 2-D Transfer Function.- 5.3 The Effect of the Horizontally Inhomogeneous Constituent of the Scattered Radiation.- 5.4 An Assessment of the Effect of Horizontal Diffusion of Photons on the Spectral Transfer Function.- 5.5 An Approximate Assessment of the Transfer Function for a Surface Formed by Two Horizontally Homogeneous Half-Planes.- 5.6 A Comparison of Experimental and Theoretical Estimates of the Spectral Transfer Functions.- 5.7 The Effect of the Atmospheric Radiative Factors on the Detection of the Small-Sized Optical Inhomogeneities of the Terrestrial Surface.- 5.8 The Formation of Reflection Spectra Near the Interface Between Two Horizontally Homogeneous Media.- 6 Radiative Correction of the Space-Derived Images of the Earth Surface.- 6.1 Setting the Problem of Atmospheric Radiative Correction.- 6.2 The Status of the Problem of Radiative Correction of Multispectral Space-Derived Images.- 6.3 An Approximation of the Dependences of Outgoing Radiation Intensities by Orthogonal Polynomials.- 6.4 Sensitivity of the Calculation Scheme Considering the Atmospheric Haze Brightness to Variations in the Initial Data.- 6.5 Atmospheric Filter for Spatial Frequencies.- 6.6 Retrieving the Spatial Structure of an Ideal Image.- 6.7 A Regularized Solution for Inverse Problem.- 6.8 Results of Radiative Correction of the Digitized Photographic and Scanner Information.- 6.9 Comparison of Results of Surface Albedo Estimation from Satellites and Aircraft.- 6.10 Thematic Interpretation of Air- and Space-Derived Digitized Video Information.- 6.10.1 Improving the Properties of Images.- 6.10.2 Principles of Recognition of Images.- 6.10.3 Features of the Applied Method for Classification.- 6.10.4 Classification of Images Before and After Their Radiative Correction.- 6.11 Atmospheric Correction as One of the Stages of Thematic Interpretation of Video Information.- 6.11.1 A Comparative Analysis of Space Images and Spectra.- 6.11.2 The Stages of Atmospheric Correction of Video Information.- 6.11.3 The Morphological and Structural Analysis of Images.- 6.11.4 The Technology of Atmospheric Correction of Video Information.- 6.12 An Assessment of the State of Natural Objects from Remote Sensing Data.- 6.12.1 Models of Multifactor Regression.- 6.12.2 Interactive Classification of Soils and Vegetation from Mid-Resolution Images.- 6.13 The Structure and Principal Elements of the Automated System of Processing Digital Aerospace Video Information.- 7 Models of Interaction of the Shortwave and Longwave Components of the Radiation Budget with the Atmosphere and the Earth Surface.- 7.1 The Boundary Problems of Shortwave Radiation Transfer.- 7.2 Cross-Sections of Interaction and Phase Functions.- 7.3 The Solution of the Boundary Problem for Shortwave Radiation.- 7.4 Possibilities of Reducing Computer Time.- 7.5 Consideration of Non-Orthotropicity and Horizontal Inhomogeneity of the Earth-Surface.- 7.6 The Longwave Radiation Transfer.- 7.7 Radiation Fluxes and Heat Flux Div…