Spectra of Backscattered Light from the Sea Obtained from Aircraft as a Measure of

Chlorophyll Concentration
Author(s): George L. Clarke, Gifford C. Ewing and Carl J. Lorenzen
Source: Science, New Series, Vol. 167, No. 3921 (Feb. 20, 1970), pp. 1119-1121
Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Stable URL: [Link]
Accessed: 18-09-2015 19:47 UTC
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\iE

10,000

ft

itself or scattered by the stratum of air

above the water.
The possibility thus exists that spectral measurements of backscattered
light can be used to delineate water
masses, to trace currents, and to deterReports
Inine the abundance of chlorophyll,
pollutants, or other significant materials
in the water. Because measurements
from aircraft or spacecraft can be
made over extensive areas much more
rapidly than from ships, they are
Spectraof BackscatteredLight from the Sea Obtained
especially suited to the study of smallscale, rapidly varying distributions of
from Aircraft as a Measureof ChlorophyllConcentratioll
oceanic properties (5). Tests of some
of these possibilities are reported here
Abstract. Spectra of sun czndskylight backscatteredfrom the secl were obtained for water masses of widely different
from a low-flying aircraft and were compared with measurements of chlorophyll known chlorophyll concentrations off
concentration naadefrom shipboard at the same localities czndat nearly the same the New England coast.
times. Increczsingamounts of chlorophyll were found to be vssociated with a relaDuring the suminers of 1967 and
tive decreczsein the blue portion of the spectra and an increase in the green. 1968, records of the spectrum of back
Anomcllies in the spectra show that factors other than chloro-phyllalso a/7ect the scatteredlight from the ocean have been
water color in some instances; these factors include other biochromes}suspended made from our research vessel Crawsediment surface reflection, polarization arld air laghts
ford and our C-54-Q research aircraft.
The spectrometer used was designed
The penetration of daylight into the found to have its spectrllm similarly by Peter White of TRW Systems, Inc.,
sea is of fundamental significance in modified by its passage through the and described by L. A. Gore (6). R. C.
the oceanic ecosystem because it con- water. A portion of the backscattered Ramsley of TRW operated the instrutrols the growth of the primary plant light escapes upward through the sur- ment and took part in the reduction of
producers and the behavior patterns of face,-where it has been recorded by an the data and in the interpretationof the
many marine animals. Previous investi- inverted spectrometer suspended above results.
gations have revealed great variation the water from a ship and from airThe TRW spectrtometeris an electroin the rates of light penetration due to craft (4). Allow!ancemust be made for optical sensor of the off-plane Ebert
dif3Terencesin amounts and kinds of light reflected from the ocean surface type with an RC:A7265 (S-20 response)
materials in the water. In addition, the
photomultiplier The spectral range is
spectral composition of the light be400 to 700 nm with a spectral resot
(14} +
neath the surface is altered by differlution of 5 to 7.5 nm, a scan time of 1.2
4\
5\
ential absorption and scattering due to
seconds, and a field of view of 3 by
9_
1
\
1 - 600 ft
the water itself, and also to whatever
[Link].
A continuousPcurve of the spec\
>
2-1000
ft
dissolved and particulate matter (both
trum is provided by a Sanborn re\
\
3-2000
ft
8\
\
living and nonliving) may be present
4-5000
ft
corder for each scan. The spectrum of
(] ) . -Because chlorophyll aSects the
the incident light from the sun and sky
!
spectrum in a characteristic way and
7r
\
\
was determined before and after each
because it is associated with living
series of measurements by recording
plants, spectral measurements of chlothe light reflected from a horizontally
6,
\
\
'
\
v
rophyll concentration may be used as
placed Eastman Kodak '4gray card"
an index of the amount of phytoplankwith a nonselective reflectivity of 18
\
\
ton present. Regions with high phyto- C 5 t
percent. A series of tests was made to
plankton abundance can support large
detect changes in the spectral distribu<<
populations of herbivores and of suc- op4
tion of incident light during the 3
cessive links in the animal food chain,
hours before and after noon due to
many of which are of economic imporchanges in the sun's altitude and to
tance to man. Thus, abundant chlorochanges in sky conditions from clear
phyll indicates the presence of a l?to light cloudiness. Changes found were
tentially productive area (2).
not great enough to af3ect significantly
The spectral changes imposed on the
our investigation of the differences in
downwelling daylight by natural waters
backscattered light from the ocean By
_
2
and by the materials ln them have beerl
taking
advantage of the fact that light
1
measured by lowering an upwardreflected from a plane surface at Brew400
450
500
550
600
650
directed spectromleter in a watertight
Wavelength(nm)
ster's angle (approximately 53 from
case to various depths (3). The upvertical incidence for normal sea
welling, or backscattered,light that can Pig. 1. Upwelling light as received at- the
water) is plane polarized with its vibraindicated altitudes at Station S (Fig. 2)
be measured by employing the spec- east of Cape Cod, 26
tion plane perpendicular to the plane
August 1968 betrometer in the inverted position is tween 1345 and 1512 hourss E.D.T.
of incidence, we could reduce the light
\

1_

20 FEBRUARY 1970

1119

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

received as reflection from the water

surface. We placed a polarizing filter,
oriented at right angles to the major
axis of polarization over the receiving
aperture of the spectrometer and tilted
the instrument at Brewsterssangle (directed away from the sun).
When we operated the spectrometer
from our C-54-Q research aircraft the
signal that we wished to measure,
namely, the spectrum of the light backscattered from beneath the sea surface,
was sometimes difficult to detect because of interference from "noises'
caused not only by surface reflection
but also by "air light.' Air light is light
that has been scattered to the instrument by the air and by material in the
air between the sea surface and the
aircraft. As the altitude of observation
increases, the area of the sea from
which light can enter the instrument
enlarges, reaching the dimensions of
about 52 by 9 feet (16 by 3 m) at 1000
feet (305 m). Smaller irregularities in
surface reflection or in the nature of the
seawater will be averaged out. At the
same time interference from air light
will increase with altitude because of
the greater path length through the
atmosphere. The curves shown in Fig.

1 were taken at altitudes ranging from

600 to 10,000 feet (183 to 3048 m) over
an area east of Cape Cod (Station S
Fig. 2), where the water was 200 m
deep and the estimated chlorophyll
content, although not measured at the
time, was probably about 0.6 mg/m3.
As altitude increased, the values for
upwelling light received increased
markedly and regularly in all parts of
the spectrum. The remainder of the
measurementsreported here were made
at an altitude of 1000 feet (305 m).
Representative spectral measurements obtained over water with high
chlorophyll content (about 4 mg/m3,
Buzzards Bay), with low chlorophyll
content (about 0.3 mg/m3, north of
the Gulf Stream), and with very low
chlorophyll content (less than 0.1 mg/
m3, Sargasso Sea) are presented in Fig.
3. The values for the backscattered
light from these areas have been calculated as percentages of the incident
light. The curves display characteristic
differences in shape. For the water
with high chlorophyll content the
backscattered light rose from values
mostly about 2.2 percent of the incident light in the blue region of the
spectrum to about 2.5 percent in the

Fig. 2. The flight of the aircraft after leaving Nantucket on 27 August 1968 and
the location of Stations A to E. Station S was occupied on 26 August. Representative
temperatures measured from the aircraft flying at 305 m are shown to the left or below
the flight path; representative chlorophyll concentrations in milligrams per cubic meter
measured from the surface ship are shown to the right or above the flight path.

green, and then dropped to about 0.3

percent in the red. For water with low
chlorophyll content the values were
higher in the blue, dropped rapidly to
much lower values in the green, and
continued to drop in the red. Where
chlorophyll content was very low, the
backscattering was higher at all wavelengths shorter than 500 nm and
reached a maximum of 7 percent at
400 nm.
On 27 August 1968*a more extensive
survey of the changes in backscattered
light from contrasting bodies of water
was conducted during a flight from
Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound to
a point in the SargassoSea south of the
Gulf Stream, then north on a 556-km
transect that crossed successively the
Gulf Stream, the slope water, a transition zone, Georges Bank, Georges
Shoals, and the s!outhernpart of the
Gulf of Maine, and returned via Cape
Cod Bay (Fig. 2). Records of the spectrum were taken at frequent intervals
with the TRW spectrometer,and a continuous trace of surface temperature
was obtained by P. M. Saunders by
means of a Barnes infrared radiometer.
A continuous record of the temperature
and the chlorophyll concentrationof the
surface water was obtained from the
R.V. Crawfordby means of a thermistor
and a continuous-flow Turner fluorometer ( 7). Water for this purpose was
drawn from an intake valve through
the hull of the vessel 2 m below the
surface. Analysis of these data shows
that the surface temperature and the
surface chlorophyll of the slope water,
the Bank water, and the Gulf of Maine
are statisticallydifferentiatedto a highly
significant degree. We also have evidence from a previous study (8) that
surface chlorophyll values may be useful as an index of biological productivity. During four cruises in the Atlantic
and Pacific, one of us (C.J.L.) collected
91 samples, which covered a range of
surface chlorophyll concentrationsfrom
0.04 to 28.3 mg/m3. Analysis showed
highly significantcorrelationswith measurementsof the total chlorophyll in the
euphotic zone and with the primary
productivity of the phytoplankton in
the waters studied. Temperature values
obtained from the aircraft agreed closely with values obtained from the ship
(see Fig. 2). Owing to the relative
sterilityof warm Gulf Streamwater, the
lower chlorophyll measurements tend
to be associated with higher sea temperatures.
A comparison of the spectra of the
backscattered light as a percentage of

1120

SCIENCE, VOL. 167

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

2-4Itt
2.03.6

SARGASSO

t SEA

_A

(40.1)

H-High
>>

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4.8-

- 4.0-

3.6- Ln

3.2
2

. {3

;
\

References and Notes

the incident light at five localities along
the flight path of 27 August is presented 1. G. L. Clarke and E. J. Denton, in T/ze Ses,
M. N. Hill, Ed. (Interscience,London, 1962),
in Fig. 4. Simultaneous measurements
pp. 456468; G. L. Clarke, Oceanol. I lt. 2,
from the aircraft and the ship were
38 (1967);
, BioSscience18, 965 (1968);
N. G.
Optical Oceanography(Elsevier,
made in the slope water at Station B
Amsterdam, 1968).
The ship's observations -at Stations C,
2. J. H. Ryther and C. S. Yentsch, Lirnnol.
Oceanogr. 2, 281 (1957); G. C. Ewing, D. L.
X, and E were not made until the folInman, L. N. Liebermann,G. Newmann D.
P. Petersen, W. S. Wooster, C. S. Yentsch
lowing day, but the range of chloro(Panel on Oceanography), Useful Appllctzphyll values was so great [Link] the diftions of Earth-Orzented-Sstellites (National
Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.,
ferences among Ithe stations can be
1969), sol. 5, pp. 4v54; J. H. Ryther, Science
relied upopnfor the present comparison.
166 72 (1969).
Time did not permit the ship toi reach 3. R. C. Smith and J. E. Tyler, J. Opt. Soc.
Amer. S7, 589 (1967); J. E. Tyler and R. C.
the locality of the aircraft'sobservation
Smith, ibid., p. 595.
4.
J.
D. H. Strickland, "The estimation of susat Station A in the Sargasso Sea south
pended matter in sea water from the air," in
of the Gulf Stream, but the chlorophyll
Ms. Rep. Ser. (Oceatiogr. Limnol.) -No. 88
(Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 1967)s
content. of the water there was almost
G. L. Clarke, G. C. Ewing, A. Conrad, R.
certainly lower than in the slope water
M. Alexander, G. Mayer, in
of Inrestigations Conducted!in 1967 (Ref. No. 68north of the [Link] the entire
32, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
1968); G. L. Clarke, in Rernote Sensing in
transectthe shape of the spectral curves
Ecology, P. L. Johnson, Ed. (Univ. of Georgia
changed progressively ias chlorophyll
Press, Athens, 1969).
S. G. C. Ewing, Deep-Sea Res. 16 (Suppl.), 35
values increased from south to north.
(196g).
The percentage of backscatt!eredlight
6. L. A. Gore, unpublished report (Electronic
Systems Division, TRW Systems, lnc., 1968).
diminished markedly in the blue region
7. C. S. Yentsch and D. W. Menzel, Deep-Sea
and increased relatively in the gree;n
Res. 10, 221 (1963); O. Holm-Hansen, C. J.
Lorenzen, R. W. Holmes, J. D. H. Strickregion, with an [Link] ;an inflecland, J. Cons. Cons. Perma. Int. Explor. Mer
tion poin.t at about 515 nm and with
30, 3 (1965); C. J. Lorenzen, Deep-Sea Res.
13, 223 (1966).
little change in the red region. This
8. C. J. Lorenzen,unpublishedmanuscript(1969).
9.
R. C. Ramsey, unpublishedfinal report (Elecresult agree!ssatisfactorily with the calSystemsDept., TRW Systems,Inc., 1968).
culated values for the effect of increas- 10. tronic
Supported by NASA contract NASA 12-631
and by Office of Naval Research contract
ing amounts of shlorophyll on ocean.
C)NR241. We thank the crews of our research
color presented iby Ramsey (9). The
ship and aircraft; we also thank Miss Anne
Bowen, Mr. Carl Fontneau, and Mr. Robert
change in shape with increasing chloroE. Frazel, research assistants. Contribution
phyll is reflected in decreased mean
No. 2394 of the Woods Hole C)ceanographic
Institution.
slope of the spectra. [Link] in the
shape and amplitude of th!ese spectra,. 12 December 1969
and of some taken on other occasions,
make it evident that other factors [Link]
a role that merits further investigation.
Our investigationshows that large dif- Acidic Mine Drainage:
ferences occur in the spectra of the light The Rate-DeterminingStep
backscattered from the eicean and that
Abstract. The rate-derermining
step
they can be recorded from aircraft. In
the present instance, the slopes of the in the oxidationof iron pyriteand the
spectra correlate quite closely with dif- formationof acidit in stresms associference-s in chlorophyll concentration. ated with coal and coppermines is the
The discrepancies are believed to Xoe oxidationof ferrousiron.Ef7ectivepoZdue to diSerence in time within paired lution abatementnecessitatescontrolobserviations,to differences in surface ling this reaction.
reRection, to scattered air light, and to
The oxidation of iron pyrite (FeS2)
the presence in the water of material
other than chlorophyll that !adectedthe and the release of acidity into waters
light selectively. If such interference draining through- coal mines (I) can
can be !elimin!ated,
or identified and al- be represented by the following relowed for, spectrometric procedures action sequence (2 ) .
from aircraft (and perhaps from satellites) will be of great value in the rapid Initiatorreaction:
investigation of oceanic condition$, mFeS(s)
> F2+ + S-compound(1)
cluding conditions importantfor biological prodlectivity.
Propagation cycle:
GEORGE
L. CLARKE
r
> Fe2+
+ o2(aq)
> Pesf
GIFFORD
C. EWING | Fe3+ + FeS2(s)
> FeW+ SO 2 (2)
CARLJ. LORENZEN
(3)
Woods Hole Oceanographic
Fe2+ is released in the initiatol:[Link], Woods Hole,
action either by simple dissociation-of
Massachasetts 20543
the iron pyrite or by oxidationof the
JerloYS

chSorophyll

L-Low chlorophyll
---Very
low chorophytl

8
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.<5 4.4

.0375

SunX7nary

1.2

0.8-

0.4

V
f

I'

400 - 450

\
L

500

550

600-

650

Wavelength (nm)

Fig. 3 Data from the high and low

chlcorophyllcurves plotted as percentage
of the incident light and ccomparedwith
data taken on the same day from an area
with very low chlorophyll concentration
south of the Gulf Stream.
40

(To 7.0%at 400 nm)

3.8-

Chlor
STA.

3.4>-

3.2

3.01

>>

2.69

2.4-

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2.0 -

ffi

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.0119
.0076
.003f1

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c
*

2.8

maSm3 SLOPE

t3 SLOPE WATER
0.3
TRANSlTION
0.6
D GEORGES 8ANK
X,3
E GEORGES SHOALS 3.0

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LOCALE

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t-

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400

Wavelength(nm)

Fig. 4. Spectraof backscatteredlight measured from the aircraftat 305 m on 27

August1968 at the followingstations(Fig.
2) and times (all E.D.T.): Station A,
1238hours;StationB, 1421 hours;Station
C, 14.28.5hours; Station D, 1445 hours;
Station E, 1315 hours. IEe spectrometer
with polarizingfilter was mountedat 53
tilt and directedaway from the sun. Concentrationsof chlorophyll a were measured from shipboardas follows: on 27
August, Station A, 1238 hours; on 28
August,StationB, 0600 hours;StationC,
0730 hours, Station D, 1230 hours.
20 FEBRUARY 1970

(+

o)

1 121

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