The absorption by atmospheric nitrogen dioxide \left({\text{NO}}_{\text{2}}\right) gas in the visible has been traditionally neglected in the retrieval of oceanic parameters from satellite measurements. Recent measurements of {\text{NO}}_{\text{2}} from spaceborne sensors show that over the Eastern United States the {\text{NO}}_{\text{2}} column amount often exceeds 1 Dobson Unit (\sim 2.69\times {10}^{16}\mathrm{molecules}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{2}}) . Our radiative transfer sensitivity calculations show that under high {\text{NO}}_{\text{2}} conditions (\sim 1\times {10}^{16}\mathrm{molecules}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{2}}) the error in top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance in the blue channels of the sea-viewing wide field-of-view sensor (SeaWiFS) and moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors is approximately 1%. This translates into approximately 10% error in water-leaving radiance for clear waters and to higher values \left(>20\%\right) in the coastal areas. We have developed an atmospheric-correction algorithm that allows an accurate retrieval of normalized water-leaving radiances (nLws) in the presence of {\text{NO}}_{\text{2}} in the atmosphere. The application of the algorithm to 52 MODIS scenes over the Chesapeake Bay area show a decrease in the frequency of negative nLw estimates in the 412\text{\hspace{0.17em} nm} band and an increase in the value of nLws in the same band. For the particular scene reported in this paper, the mean value of nLws in the \text{412 \hspace{0.17em} nm} band increased by 17%, which is significant, because for the MODIS sensor the error in nLws attributable to the digitization error in the observed TOA reflectance over case 2 waters is \sim \text{2 .5\%} .