Phenomenological analysis of simulated signals observed over shaded areas in an urban scene

This paper analyzes the signal measured by optical remote sensors when acquiring data over a shaded part of an urban scene. The signal is much lower for this kind of target than for others because there is no direct downward irradiance. Here, a simple urban scene is considered with a shaded area. The signal observed by a high spatial resolution satellite sensor over an ordinary panchromatic band (500-700 nm) is computed thanks to a radiative transfer code [advanced modeling of the atmospheric radiative transfer for inhomogeneous surfaces (Amartis)] capable of dealing with ground topography and heterogeneity. The signal is analyzed, and it appears that environmental effects play a significant role. Moreover, because of the scattering that occurs at shorter wavelengths, it is also shown that a widening of the band to 440 nm sharpens the difference between signals coming from two different ground types (for whose the difference of reflectance is constant and equal to 0.1) by about 10%. This demonstrates that the band widening may be beneficial to observation in shadow, mainly because of scattering effects. A more realistic scene is also considered, in which each part is associated with realistic spectral properties. This simply shows the importance of the thematic in the choice of band, as it determines the effect of the widening.