Effects of Sediment Microfabric on Benthic Optical Properties
Abstract
The long-term goal of this CoBOP project is to understand how natural inorganic variations in sediment microfabric (e.g., grain size, shape, sorting, composition, and orientation) effect the benthic light signal. Implicit within this is the development of quantitative relationships for those parameters that can be utilized in optical models and in the groundtruthing of optical remote sensing imagery. The objectives of this first field year (second year overall) of the CoBOP project were to obtain the first field measurements from two instrumentation tools developed in Year 1. The first is a microspectroradiometer which was used in this first field year to examine the fluorescence characteristics of inorganic sediment grains and what effect they may have on the benthic optical signal. The second instrument was a fiber-optic microprobe that was developed to measure the penetration of light at all visible and long-UV wavelengths into intact seabed samples. A series of experiments were designed to examine sediment microfabric using these instruments during the first year of CoBOP field studies at Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas and Monterey Bay, California. Two sites were designed to test the approach in a predominantly carbonate sediment setting and a siliciclastic setting.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA537538
Entities
People
- Mead A. Allison
Organizations
- Texas A&M University