Ocean Optics

doi:10.1117/3.2553485.ch12

Ocean Optics

Book: Photonics Rules of Thumb, Third Edition

Author(s): John Lester Miller, Katie Schwertz, Edward J. Friedman, John N. Sanders-Reed, Brian K. McComas

Published: 2020

https://doi.org/10.1117/3.2553485.ch12

Author Affiliations +

Abstract

The interaction of light and water has been a topic of study for many centuries, and for good reason. It is well understood that light in the ocean stimulates the microscopic plant life that supports the food chain and ultimately defines the availability of food resources for humans. The earliest interest in the subject related to the characteristics of vision when the observer is submerged or is viewing submerged objects. These problems were successfully addressed when the principle of refraction was understood. By the 1940s, S. Q. Duntley1 had begun his pioneering work on the optical properties of clear lake waters (the Nobel Prize winner John Mather was among his interns). Preisendorfer assembled the existing theory in the mid-1970s and thoroughly summarized the state of the theoretical nature of the problem.