Details:

Journal Title:
Remote Sensing of Environment
Personal Author:
Lee, ZhongPing ; Shang, Shaoling ; Hu, Chuanmin ; Du, Keping ; Weidemann, Alan ; ... More +
Lee, ZhongPing ; Shang, Shaoling ; Hu, Chuanmin ; Du, Keping ; Weidemann, Alan ; Hou, Weilin ; Lin, Junfang ; Lin, Gong Less -
NOAA Program & Office:
NOAA General Documents
Description:
Secchi disk depth (ZSD) is a measure of water transparency, whose interpretation has wide applications from diver visibility to studies of climate change. This transparency has been explained in the past 60 + years with the underwater visibility theory, the branch of the general visibility theory for visual ranging in water. However, through a thorough review of the physical processes involved in visual ranging in water, we show that this theory may not exactly represent the sighting of a Secchi disk by a human eye. Further, we update the Law of Contrast Reduction, a key concept in visibility theory, and develop a new theoretical model to interpret ZSD. Unlike the classical model that relies strongly on the beam attenuation coefficient, the new model relies only on the diffuse attenuation coefficient at a wavelength corresponding to the maximum transparency for such interpretations. This model is subsequently validated using a large (N = 338) dataset of independent measurements covering oceanic, coastal, and lake waters, with results showing excellent agreement (~ 18% average absolute difference, R2 = 0.96) between measured and theoretically predicted ZSD ranging from < 1 m to > 30 m without regional tuning of any model parameters. This study provides a more generalized view of visual ranging, and the mechanistic model is expected to significantly improve the current capacity in monitoring water transparency of the global aquatic environments via satellite remote sensing.
Keywords:
[+]
Computers In Earth Sciences Geology Soil Science
Source:
Remote Sensing of Environment, 169, 139-149
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2015.08.002
ISSN:
0034-4257
Format:
PDF
Publisher:
Elsevier BV
Document Type:
Journal Article
License:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Rights Information:
CC BY-NC-ND
Compliance:
Library
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:56028c76d8e96ac8a32a4b214457b1cd0215a443b220cc94a8a55dd092a44fdb
Download URL:
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/59493/noaa_59493_DS1.pdf
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