Ocean Optics

Raphe Kudela, & Sherry Palacios UC- Santa Cruz

Why Study the Ocean?

Covers ~70% of the planet About half of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced by phytoplankton

Remote Sensing is the best available method for monitoring longterm (decadal) changes in global productivity, and linking these changes to human activities

Global Warming? Basin-Scale Oscillations?

Behrenfeld et al. 2006

Coastal Greening?

Kahru et al. 2009

Example: Gulf of California

Despite naturally high nutrient concentrations and productivity, nitrogen-rich agricultural runoff fuels largephytoplankton blooms in the Gulf of California. Runoff exerts a strong and consistent inuence on biological processes, in 80% of cases stimulating blooms within days of fertilization and irrigation of agricultural elds. ! We project that by the year 2050, 2759% of all nitrogen fertilizer will be applied in developing regions located upstream of nitrogendecient marine ecosystems.!

Beman et al., Nature 2005!

MASTER has 50 bands, but only 7 of them are available for most oceanographic applications

Light in water
Solar radiation (light) must first reach the surface of the ocean by passing through the atmosphere It must then enter the water (rather than being reflected) It then is governed by optical properties of water

The Coastal Ocean Conundrum

Unlike terrestrial remote sensing, the target is constantly moving--we need very rapid image analysis The ocean is a dark target atmospheric correction is critical. Multiple sensors, multiple problems Scales of interest range from 10s of meters to 100s of kilometers (but the available sensors rarely match these requirements!)

Spatial Resolution

September 12, 2006 Time sequence of 710 nm:  Diurnal migration of the bloom?

0908

0938

1006

1124

1204

1238

Solar Radiation Incident on the Ocean

Transmission through the atmosphere depends on:
Solar zenith angle (latitude, season, time of day) Cloud cover Atmospheric pressure (air mass) Water vapor Atmospheric turbidity Column ozone (important for UV-B)
Ground albedo (how much light is reflected from the ground) also affects the incident irradiance.

Midsummer Solar Irradiance at 45N (midday)

about 450 W m-2 (PAR, energy units) 2000 mol m-2 s-1 (PAR, quanta)

Midwinter Solar Irradiance at 45N

about 200 W m-2; 800 mol m-2 s-1 ((PAR only) Note that PAR = Photosynthetically Available Radiation; it is the integral of the spectral irradiance over the visible wavelengths 400-700 nm.

The atmosphere
The atmosphere attenuates the amount of radiation impinging on earths surface. Atmosphere

Kirk 1994, Fig. 2.1, p. 27

Solar irradiance at the air-sea interface

Surface Reflection
2 - 3% for solar zenith angles 0 - 45 Increased greatly when angles exceed 70; less so with surface roughness

Refraction
Refractive index of natural waters is about 1.34 (air is 1.0) Light direction becomes more vertical Focusing and defocusing effects of waves
air water Reflection and refraction
Total internal reflection Focusing and defocusing

Light in the ocean

The light becomes more directional and you lose the blues and the reds

Light in the ocean

Beer-Lambert Law Ed=E0 e-kz
E

Ed = downwelling irradiance E0 = surface irradiance k = diffuse attenuation z = depth

Light in the ocean

What Determines the Optical Properties of Water?

Water color is determined mostly by absorption (not particles)

Water clarity is determined mostly by scattering (the amount of stuff in the water)

Absorption, Scattering, and Beam Attenuation

Beam attenuation (c ) is the combination of absorption and scattering Diffuse attenuation (k) is something else

Absorption in the ocean

0.7

Total

0.6 0.5

Absorption (m )

-1

Water

0.4 0.3

Phytoplankton Detritus + dissolved colored matter

450 500 550 600 650 700

0.2 0.1

0 400

Wavelength (nm)

Blue water, green water

Scattering
Removal of photon from the incident light beam. bf

a
bb

Forward scattering bf (m-1) Backscattering bb (m-1)

Confluence of Rio Negro and Amazon Rivers, Brazil

Image shamelessly swiped from internet from Star

The ABCs of Light

Optics Primer
IOP- Inherent optical property eg. absorption (a), scattering (b), attenuation (c) AOP- Apparent optical property eg. irradiance (E), radiance (L)

Ed()
remote sensing reflectance

Rrs = g

bb

a + bb

Lu Ed

Lu()

aw aCDOM ad bb Fluor aph

c=a+b btot = bf + bb atot = aw + aph + ad + aCDOM

bf

Rrs, Lwn, & Ed used in satellite models to predict IOPs Lwn() Rrs()
SeaWiFS Chl a
10.0

remote sensing reflectance

Rrs = g

bb

a + bb

Lu Ed

1.0

Lwn Lu + Lsky

0.1 0.1

Adapted from Kahru & Mitchell 2001

In situ Chl a (mg m-3)

1.0

10.0

Scattering in the ocean

Coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi

http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/earthguide/imagelibrary/emilianiahuxleyi.html

More recently satellite algorithms have been developed for some phytoplankton taxa detection

Iglesias-Rodriguez et al. 2000

Absorption plus Scattering

Red tide

Eddies off the coast of Chile

Ocean Color is a + bb

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html

bbw + bbp Lu Rrs ( ) = constant Ed aw + aph + adm + bbw + bbp

True Color

Metals

Iron Cobalt Copper Mercury Methyl Mercury Manganese Nickel Lead Zinc p<0.001 R2 from 0.52-0.91

Chlorophyll

SST

May 2004, MODIS

Team Oceans Projects

Kelp Forest Ecology Harmful Algal Bloom Detection Land-Sea Interface Homeland Security (ship tracking) Hydrocarbons Atmospheric Correction

Team Oceans Projects

Kelp Forest Ecology
How do you map a kelp forest? How does this change as a function of spatial resolution? How does the kelp forest change the surrounding ocean? How does the kelp respond to the environment? Why are kelp found where they are?

Team Oceans Projects

Harmful Algal Bloom Detection
Can we detect phytoplankton types?

Land-Sea Interface
How would you develop habitat maps for complex coastal environments (kelp, eel grass, estuarine waters, etc)

Team Oceans Projects

Ship Tracking
Can we identify large vessel tracks (could this be applied to whales?)

Hydrocarbons
There are natural hydrocarbon seeps in the SBCcan those be detected as oceanic or atmospheric perturbations?

Atmospheric Correction
How best to remove the atmosphere?

Imagine
.An imaging optical sensor that meets the following specifications: A dynamic range of order 1010-1012 (~35-40 bits) An ability to resolve over 10,000 wavebands over the visible. A detection limit equivalent to photon flux at the 0.000001% light level (relative to surface noon) while still resolving colors, and three orders of magnitude more when shifted (automatically) to monochromatic mode centered at 498 nm A spectral response optimized for coastal, green water environments. Logarithmic ranging IR and UV blocking to high degree. Dynamic focusing. Ability to handle 104 radiance range in a single image. Spatial resolution of 60 arc-minutes (~250 meters at 700 km altitude) <100 msec response time On-sensor adaptive preprocessing, coupled to advanced image processing ~ 3 cm in size Other models available sensitive in UV, IR, polarization

The product of 3 billion years of R&D!

Radiative Transfer Equation

1z z 1 E 1 z 1 L(z;) = L(0; )exp c(z' ' )dz'' + L (z' ; ) + S(z' ; ) exp c(z' ' )dz'' dz c(z' ) 0 0 z'

Beer-Lambert Law
E=E0 e-kz
bbw + bbp Lu Rrs ( ) = constant Ed aw + aph + adm + bbw + bbp