The optical volume scattering function: Temporal and vertical variability in the water column off the New Jersey

I present optical data collected offshore of the New Jersey coast at the Long Term Ecological Observatory LEO-15 during the summer of 2001. The data were collected by using a LISST-100 instrument, which measured the volume scattering function (VSF) over the small-angle range 0.1–208 (1.7–340 milliradians) at 670 nm. The mea-surements only occasionally agree with the widely used data of Petzold. No simple correlation between surface or bottom forcing and the form of the VSF at this site was found. However, a systematic vertical variability as well as a temporal variability in the normalized VSF was observed. In particular, the departure from Petzold’s form appears to increase with increasing depth. Power-law forms of the time-averaged small-angle normalized VSF as a function of depth are given. The volume scattering function (VSF) of water is an in-herent optical property that governs the propagation of light below the surface. The small-angle forward VSF is relevant to a particular set of situations in ocean optics, namely, the propagation of laser beams, LIDAR, and image degradation or blurring. The VSF is the sum of three components: VS