BIOGEO-OPTICS: WHAT DRIVES THE COASTAL OCEAN REMOTE-SENSING SIGNAL? *

摘要

Remote sensing algorithms developed for open ocean waters will fail in coastal waters. I am developing parameterizations of the inherent optical properties of the coastal ocean to generate global coastal ocean remote sensing algorithms. We must recognize the optical nature of the suspended matter of the coastal ocean that is driving the remote sensing signal (upwelling radiance). I have coined a new term to characterize this effort: biogeo-optics. This emphasizes and recognizes that the most significant component of the coastal hydrosol backscattering coefficient (the ultimate driver of the upwelling radiance) is the suspended mineral matter. I will report on these parameterization efforts with our (NRL-Stennis and NASA-Stennis) recent results on partitioning the backscattering coefficients in the northern Gulf of Mexico. These ship-truthing efforts have demonstrated that the hydrosol scattering coefficient is dominated by suspended mineral matter and the hydrosol backscattering coefficient can be driven almost 90% by the concentration of suspended mineral matter. Central to this activity is the partitioning of Total Suspended Solids into Particulate Inorganic Matter and Particulate Organic Matter. With this partitioning of the fundamental physical forcing of the upwelling radiance we will develop global algorithms for inverting both sediment concentrations and concentrations of particulate organic matter (chlorophyll) from the spectral upwelling radiance. Remote sensing algorithms now being developed are based on either the total scattering coefficient or the backscattering coefficient of the coastal hydrosol.