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Effects of microbial particles on oceanic optics: Methodology for radiative transfer modeling and example simulations
Author(s) -
Mobley Curtis D.,
Stramski Dariusz
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1997.42.3.0550
Subject(s) - radiative transfer , absorption (acoustics) , attenuation , scattering , particle (ecology) , atmospheric radiative transfer codes , environmental science , light scattering , biological system , particulates , colored dissolved organic matter , underwater , remote sensing , physics , chemistry , optics , geology , oceanography , nutrient , phytoplankton , organic chemistry , biology
Radiative transfer numerical modeling provides a powerful means of separating and understanding the effects of various types of microbial particles on oceanic light fields. We illustrate the methodology for achieving this separation and provide various idealized examples. We begin with a database of the single‐particle optical properties of marine microbial particles and then construct the total absorption and scattering properties of natural waters for given concentrations of the various particle types. When used as input to the Hydrolight radiative transfer numerical model, these absorption and scattering properties generate underwater light fields. Because this modeling process rests upon the optical properties of the individual microbial components, rather than just on the total absorption and scattering properties of a water body, it is possible to analyze the effects of the various particulate components on quantities such as diffuse attenuation coefficients and remote‐sensing refiectances. We find that different microbial compositions in two water bodies can give considerably different optical properties, even though the chlorophyll concentration is the same in each of the water bodies. Our simulations show how variability in chlorophyll concentrations obtained from remotely sensed ocean color signals can be explained by the detailed composition of the water body. This approach suggests that it may be possible to distinguish between blooms of small picophytoplankton and larger nanophytoplankton by using remotely sensed signals.