A new line of 'multicolor' copper vapor lasers developed by SI Vavilov State Optical Institute to provide a set of four simultaneously emitted visible light pulses at 510.6, 539.4, 578.2, and 615.4 nm suggests a promising tool for optical oceanography. Along with application to bathymetry and submerged object detection, multicolor CVL employment offers strong possibilities of estimation of optical characteristics of seawater from elastic-scattering lidar sounding data. An approach to the problem of airborne lidar retrieval of inherent optical properties proposed in this paper is based on reconstruction of depth profiles of the diffuse attenuation coefficient, K_d, for each of the generated wavelength sand subsequent evaluation of IOP's with the use of physical models for light absorption and scattering by ocean water.

Date Published: 14 January 2002
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 4488, Ocean Optics: Remote Sensing and Underwater Imaging, (14 January 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.452804

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4488:
Ocean Optics: Remote Sensing and Underwater Imaging
Robert J. Frouin; Robert J. Frouin; Gary D. Gilbert, Editor(s)