Determining the Scattering Properties of Vertically-Structured Nepheloid Layers from the Fusion of Active and Passive Optical Sensors

The optical impacts of a scattering benthic boundary layer are fairly obvious to in situ and remote sensing techniques that measure ocean color. These scattering layers cause an increase in light reflectance from positions above the benthos, a reduction in the penetrating photons to the bottom, and a decrease in photons scattered from the bottom back toward the surface. The net result is that these layers reduce the ability of active and passive optical instruments to retrieve estimates of bathymetry and bottom classification, as well as reduce the abilities of optical Mine Counter Measures (MCM) instrumentation to accurately image the bottom for mine-like objects. These scattering layers are not just optically active, they are in fact acoustically scattering as well. These scattering layers may introduce some real difficulties into both the optical and acoustical methods of detecting mine-like objects, reducing the viability of two major techniques in MCM. The project seeks to assess these the spatial extent of these nepheloid scattering layers with active and passive remote sensing techniques, and quantitatively resolve their vertical structure.