Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Nayak, Aditya

Abstract

Lidar has the ability to supplant or compliment many current measurement technologies in ocean optics. Lidar measures Inherent Optical Properties over long distances without impacting the orientation and assemblages of particles it measures, unlike many systems today which require pumps and flow cells. As an active sensing technology, it has the benefit of being independent of time of day and weather. Techniques to interpret oceanographic lidar lags behind atmospheric lidar inversion techniques to measure optical properties due to the complexity and variability of the ocean. Unlike in the atmosphere, two unknowns in the lidar equation backscattering at 180o (����) and attenuation (c) do not necessarily covary. A lidar system developed at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute is used as a test bed to validate a Monte-Carlo model to investigate the inversion of optical properties from lidar signals. Controlled tank experiments and field measurements are used to generate lidar waveforms and provide optical situations to model. The Metron EODES backscatter model is used to model waveforms. A chlorophyll based forward optical model provides a set of 1500 unique optical situations which are modeled to test inversion techniques and lidar geometries. Due to issues with the lidar system and model the goal of validating the model as well as a more mature inversion experiment were not completed. However, the results are valuable to show the complexity and promise of lidar systems.

Extent

99 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00013631

Format

pdf

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