On the radiative transfer in the sea, including fluorescence and stratification effects

A general two-flow (sunlight and fluorescence emission) radiative transfer model in the sea is developed. It treats radiation sources (fluorescence) and particle stratification within the water column. With a given set of input parameters, model computations are performed and compared to measured data. Both experiments and computations reveal substantial depth dependence of irradiance reflectance and attenuation functions in the chlorophyll fluorescence wavelength region, even in the case of homogeneous particle distributions with low concentrations. The theory of radiative transfer in natural waters has been treated extensively (Prei-sendorfer 1976, 1984; Prieur 1976). The aim of these studies is not only to describe nat-ural and induced light fields under water but also to predict the composition of the water masses from their optical properties-the so-called inverse problems. Application o