Remote sensing of scattering coefficient for airborne laser hydrography

Deriving vertical profiles of chlorophyll-a concentration in the upper layer of seawaters using ICESat-2 photon-counting lidar

Chlorophyll-a concentration (chl-a) is a great indicator for estimating phytoplankton biomass and productivity levels and is also particularly useful for monitoring the water quality, biodiversity and species distribution, and harmful algal blooms. A great deal of studies investigated to estimate chl-a concentrations using ocean color remotely sensed data. With the development of photon-counting sensors, spaceborne photon-counting lidar can compensate for the shortcomings of passive optical remote sensing by enabling ocean vertical profiling in low-light conditions (e.g., at night). Using geolocated photons captured by the first spaceborne photon-counting lidar borne on ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2), this research reported methods for deriving vertical profiles of chl-a concentration in the upper layer of ocean waters. This study first calculates the average numbers of backscattered subaqueous photons of ICESat-2 at different water depths, and then estimates the optical parameters in water column based on a discrete theoretical model of the expected number of received signal photons. With the estimated optical parameters, vertical profiles of chl-a concentration are calculated by two different empirical algorithms. In two study areas (mostly with Type I open ocean waters and small part of Type II coastal ocean waters), the derived chl-a concentrations are generally consistent when validated by BGC-Argo (Biogeochemical Argo) data in the vertical direction (MAPEs<15%) and compared with MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data in the along-track direction (average R²>0.86). Using globally covered ICESat-2 data, this approach can be used to obtain vertical profiles of chl-a concentration and optical parameters at a larger scale, which will be helpful to analyze impact factors of climate change and human activities on subsurface phytoplankton species and their growth state.

What percentage of the oceanic mixed layer is accessible to marine Lidar? Global and the Gulf of Mexico prospective

The oceanic mixed layer is a nearly homogenous region of the upper ocean which, in principle, has a little or no variation in turbulence strength, temperature or density with depth. This layer mediates oceanic fluxes of gas, momentum and heat. Here, based on the chosen marine Lidar system, we have carried out estimates of the depth penetration of the Lidar when compared to the local mixed layer depth. On average, we have found that at least 50% of the global oceanic mixed layer depth is accessible to the Lidar observations. When operating in a single scattering mode, which is more attenuating but more amenable to analysis, the modeled Lidar was found to access 0.4 of global mixed layer depth in half of the cases. The single scattering Lidar was found to access a large fraction of the equatorial mixed layer - a region very important when addressing global climatic issues. In a coastal environment such as the Gulf of Mexico the single scattering Lidar was found to penetrate upper half of the mixed layer, underscoring the potential for Lidar to address environmental issues there.

Lidar equations for turbid media with pulse stretching

Lidar equations for a system with multiple-scattering beam spreading and pulse stretching are developed from an analytical model for the beam spread function. The resulting lidar equations are transparent to the physics and with some simple approximations for system transfer functions become mathematically simple engineering models for system studies. Application to and comparison with a variety of lidar applications in ocean environments (turbidity and bathymetry) and clouds (aerosol scattering) are presented. These examples provide model validation. The lidar model developed represents a significant extension beyond historical lidar models that exclude pulse stretching. Their mathematical simplicity should foster use in a broader class of problems involving light propagation in turbid media.

Treatment of polarization in laser remote sensing of ocean water

We review existing experimental data and methods for calculating the Mueller matrix of ocean water for use as input in a simulation model applicable to laser remote sensing. Calculations of the Mueller matrix are made for scattering media of different refractive indices, shapes, and size distributions. Dependencies of the backscattering depolarization ratio as a function of the particle refractive index are presented, and we demonstrate the potential importance of polarization in bathymetric sensing.

Laser remote sensing of aquatic environment: first- and second-order scattering model

Transport of a small divergent (of several millirads) laser beam in shallow waters has been investigated. A simple model was developed to describe and calculate the first- and second-order power and energy flux. From evaluation of the truncation error the applicability of the second-order approach for clear waters is concluded. On the other hand, turbid waters can be treated by introducing an effective beam attenuation coefficient. The computations were performed for different geometrical configurations of a lidar system and for diverse aquatic conditions. Finally, an alternative method for remote sensing of the concentration of particulate material by an airborne lidar instrument is proposed by using off-axis detection.