Backscatter of Bottom Reflected Light into the Downwelling Light Stream
Abstract
Various remote sensing equations dealing with ocean color models (R, W. Austin, in Optical Aspects of Oceanography, eds. Jerlov and Nielsen, Academic Press., London, 1974) active and passive hydrographic surveying (G. C. Guenther, NOAA Professional Papers, NOS-1, 1985) include the bottom reflectance as a significant variable. Bottom spectral reflectance quantifies the effect the optical characteristics of the bottom sediments have on the upwelling light field. In optically shallow waters which possess a large bottom component in the upwelling light field, light reflected from the bottom can be backscattered into the uplooking irradiance stream and influence the spectral content of the measured downwelling signal. The extent to which this occurs is important to quantify simply because the measurement of water reflectances are biased by this process. Thus, any computations which are based upon these measurements are to some degree suspect. The objective of this work is to model the contamination of the downwelling stream due to the backscatter of the bottom light field. Then the model will be used to determine the extent of 'contamination' using collected field data.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA258165
Entities
People
- L. Estep
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory