The optical efficiency of flocs in shelf seas and estuaries

A correct understanding of the way in which light interacts with suspended particles is essential for quantitative interpretation of satellite visible band imagery of turbid shelf seas and estuaries. In this paper we describe new optical observations at 90 stations in the tidally energetic waters along the south and west coasts of Britain. The cross sectional area of the particles in suspension has been measured with a LISST laser diffraction instrument. Light scattering and absorption coefficients have been determined by applying Kirk’s method to radiometric measurements at 6 wavelengths. Results show that the scattering coefficient increases linearly with particle cross sectional area A per unit volume of water with a slope (scattering efficiency) of 1.96 (standard error 0.08) at 665 nm. Particle absorption coefficients a_P also increase with particle cross sectional area but at the most turbid stations, particle absorption per unit area (a_P/A) is observed to increase with the mean size of the particles in suspension. The particles are mostly mineral flocs which become more opaque as they grow larger and the photon path length through them increases. The implication of these results for remote sensing is that reflectance in the red part of the spectrum, which mainly depends on light scattering, is proportional to the cross sectional area of particles in suspension. Reflectance measurements in the green and blue parts of the spectrum, where particle absorption becomes more important, depend on the diameter of the particles as well as their cross sectional area. We show that simultaneous measurements of reflectance in the red and green parts of the spectrum can be used to derive both the area and size of the particles in suspension.