Study of the effects of phytoplankton morphology and vertical profile on lidar attenuated backscatter and depolarization ratio

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Propagation of a lidar beam in a coupled atmosphere-ocean model consisting of multiple atmospheric and upper oceanic layers and a rough ocean surface is studied by using a vectorized Monte Carlo radiative transfer solver optimized specifically for lidar-based remote sensing applications. The effects of assumed phytoplankton morphology variations and its vertical distribution on the lidar attenuated backscatter and depolarization ratio are studied. In this study, a phytoplankton particle is assumed to be a sphere, a sphere with a core, or a randomly distorted hexahedron with or without a core. The single-scattering properties of the nonspherical/inhomogeneous particles are computed using appropriate state-of-the-art light-scattering computational capabilities. Vertical variation of the phytoplankton distribution is derived explicitly using a PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) limited carbon biomass balance equation that is subsequently coupled with the Monte Carlo solver.

Study of the effects of phytoplankton morphology and vertical profile on lidar attenuated backscatter and depolarization ratio Academic Article