Evaluating radiometric sensitivity of Landsat 8 over coastal/inland waters

The operational Land Imager (OLI) aboard Landsat 8 was launched in February 2013 to continue the Landsat´s mission of monitoring earth resources at relatively high spatial resolution. Compared to Landsat heritage sensors, OLI has an additional 443-nm band (termed coastal/aerosol (CA) band), which extends Landsat´s potential for mapping/monitoring water quality in coastal/inland waters. In addition, OLI´s pushbroom design allows for longer integration time and, as a result, higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Using a series of radiative transfer simulations, we provide insights into the radiometric sensitivity of OLI when studying coastal/inland waters. This will address how the changes in water constituents manifest at the sensor level and whether the changes are resolvable (focal plane) relative to OLI´s overall noise¹.