Automatic cloud removal for Landsat 8 OLI images using cirrus band

The detection of cirrus cloud has historically been difficult due to the lack of a 1.375μm wavelength band in earlier Landsat ETM+ imagery. Landsat 8 OLI has addressed this problem by adding a new cirrus band at this wavelength. This paper presents a study of the effectiveness of utilizing the newly available data for this purpose. An image-based method is developed for cirrus cloud contamination correction. The relationship between a visible or infrared band and the cirrus band is estimated via a linear regression using the data in a homogenous land cover area. The key issue of how to automatic identify homogenous background from the cirrus contaminated data is addressed. The images corrected by our method show satisfactory quality.