Delivery Order NNS08AA83B-NNS08AB25T

THIS SUBCONTRACT IS ONE COMPONENT OF A COLLABORATION BETWEEN NAVY OCEAN SCIENTISTS AT NRL STENNIS AND OCEAN RESEARCHERS AT NORTHERN GULF INSTITUTE OF THE MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY. THE NAVAL OCEANOGRAPHY DIVISION AT STENNIS SPACE CENTER IS ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN OCEAN OPTICS RESEARCH AND APPLICATION OF OCEAN-COLOR REMOTE SENSING PRODUCTS. IN PARTICULAR, SUCH PRODUCTS PROVIDE CRITICAL SUPPORT TO VARIOUS NAVY MISSIONS. IN THE PAST, OCEAN COLOR REMOTE SENSING HAS BEING FOCUSED ON THE DERIVATION OF CHLOROPHYLL CONCENTRATION IN THE OPEN OCEAN, AND WITH A STATISTICAL (OR EMPIRICAL) APPROACH. FOR NAVY OPERATIONS, ESPECIALLY FOR COASTAL REGIONS, SUCH AN APPROACH IS FOUND VERY LIMITED IN USEFULNESS. IN PARTICULAR NAVY MISSIONS ARE INTERESTED IN THE OVERALL ENVIRONMENT THAT INCLUDES INFORMATION OF WATER CLARITY, VISIBILITY, BIOGEOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS, SHALLOW WATER PROPERTIES, AS WELL AS THEIR TEMPORAL VARIATIONS. THE NORTHERN GULF INSTITUTE OF THE MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS SPECIALIZED IN DATA MANAGING AND INTEGRATION OF VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL, IN PARTICULAR COASTAL ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCTS. THE CONTRACTOR S PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR IS AN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED EXPERT IN OCEAN OPTICS AND OCEAN COLOR REMOTE SENSING, AND HAS BEEN A LEADER IN DEVELOPING OCEAN COLOR REMOTE SENSING ALGORITHMS FOR OCEANIC AND COASTAL WATERS. THIS PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL DEMONSTRATE A CROSS AGENCY AND CROSS INSTITUTE COLLABORATION THAT WILL BENEFIT BOTH THE NAVY AND THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY. SCOPE IN RECENT YEARS, OCEAN COLOR REMOTE SENSING HAS BEEN SHIFTED TO UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INHERENT OPTICAL PROPERTIES (IOPS) AND SATELLITE-MEASURED OCEAN COLOR, AS WELL AS TO DEVELOP ANALYTICAL APPROACHES FOR THE RETRIEVAL OF IOPS FROM MEASUREMENTS OF OCEAN COLOR. THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WILL THUS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: DEVELOP IOP-CENTERED SYSTEM TO CORRECT THE DIRECTIONAL EFFECTS IN WATER-LEAVING RADIANCE (OR COMMONLY CALLED BI-DIRECTIONAL REFLECTANCE FUNCTION (BRDF)); DEVELOP FAST AND ACCURATE LIGHT PENETRATION MODEL FOR STRATIFIED MARINE SYSTEMS; EXPLORE ACTIVE (LIDAR) AND PASSIVE SYSTEMS FOR PRECISE REMOTE SENSING IN COMPLEX COASTAL ENVIRONMENTS. IN OCEAN-COLOR REMOTE SENSING, WATER-LEAVING RADIANCE, LW, IS THE BASIC PROPERTY FOR RETRIEVAL OF SUBSURFACE PROPERTIES. BECAUSE THE ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION OF LW IS NOT LAMBERTIAN, REMOTE SENSING REFLECTANCE (RRS: RATIO OF LW TO DOWNWELLING IRRADIANCE AT SURFACE) DIFFERS FOR DIFFERENT VIEWING GEOMETRY EVEN FOR THE SAME WATER BODY. TO ACCURATELY CALIBRATE AND VALIDATE SATELLITE SYSTEMS, AND TO RELIABLY RETRIEVE WATER PROPERTIES, IT IS THUS REQUIRED TO REMOVE THIS ANGULAR VARIATION OF RRS. TRADITIONALLY, FOR CASE1 WATERS, WHERE WATER S INHERENT OPTICAL PROPERTIES (IOPS) ARE DETERMINED BY CONCENTRATION OF CHLOROPHYLL ([CHL]) ALONE, MOREL AND COLLEAGUES HAVE DESIGNED A SYSTEM TO CORRECT THE ANGULAR DEPENDENCE BASED ON INFORMATION OF [CHL]. FOR MANY COASTAL WATERS, EVEN SOME OCEANIC WATERS, HOWEVER, ABSORPTION OF COLORED DISSOLVED ORGANIC MATTER (CDOM) AND SCATTERING OF SUSPENDED PARTICLE ONLY POORLY CO-VARY WITH [CHL], THUS [CHL] ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH FOR ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE IOPS AND THEN THE ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION OF RRS. TO OVERCOME THE CASE1 LIMITATION AND TO COVER BOTH OCEANIC AND COASTAL WATERS, IT IS NECESSARY TO DEVELOP AN IOP-BASED SYSTEM TO CORRECT THE ANGULAR VARIATION OF RRS, WHERE THE MODEL PARAMETERS OF RRS WILL BE EXPRESSED AS FUNCTIONS OF IOPS, AND BE TABULATED FOR DIFFERENT ANGLES AND DIFFERENT PARTICLE PHASE FUNCTIONS. DELIVERABLES: ? DEVELOP A LOOK-UP-TABLE (LUT) OF ANGULAR COEFFICIENTS (REQUIRED FOR REMOTE-SENSING REFLECTANCE MODEL) FOR VARIOUS PARTICLE PHASE FUNCTIONS (PPF). DELIVERY WILL BE IN A REPORT AND DIGITAL FILES ? REFINE ANALYTICAL ALGORITHMS TO IMPROVE THE RETRIEVAL OF IOPS BY SELECTING ALGORITHM PARAMETERS BASED ON PARTICLE PHASE FUNCTIONS. THE DELIEERY WILL BE IN A REPORT. ? DEVELOP ALGORITHMS TO INCORPORATE PPF-BASED ANGULAR COEFFICIENTS