An effort has been made to retrieve surface spectral reflectance from satellite radiance measurements. For this purpose, a simple cubic equation with surface reflectance as one of its roots has been derived. Besides satellite measured radiance, the other required quantities in the equation are calculated by using the actual solution of radiative transfer equation by a discrete ordinate method, taking into account the inhomogeneous aerosol distribution. The method has been tested for internal consistency by numerical simulations using realistic aerosol profiles. Finally, it has been tested with a Landsat image, giving good agreement with ground observations.