An improved profiling method for the measurement of hyperspectral diffuse attenuation coefficents in shallow turbid waters

The measurement of hyperspectral diffuse attenuation coefficients (Kd(λ)) in shallow turbid waters cannot be successfully achieved by the original Satlantic profiling system, because of less data available in the near-surface waters due to the rapid decrease of light intensity. In this paper, an improved profiling system and processing method are proposed. Firstly, a convenient buoyancy device is designed and mounted on the Satlantic Profiler II to allow the profiler to loiter close to the sea surface, thereby significantly improving the vertical sampling resolution to 1cm/s in near-surface waters, particularly in the depth between 0 and 1 meter. In addition, customized processing software CProSoft is developed to subjectively select the depths for various wavelengths that meet their different requirement for regression analysis. Comparison with original system results shows that our novel method can significantly improve the accuracy of Kd(λ) measurements especially in the short blue and red spectral range, and can even effectively derive near-surface Kd values in the extremely turbid waters with attenuation coefficients greater than 30 m-1, which dramatically enlarge the Kd(λ) measuring range