OVERVIEW

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 man. 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. Duntley had begun his pioneering work on the optical properties of clear lake waters. Preisendorfer assembled the existing theory in the mid 1970s and thoroughly summarized the state of the theoretical nature of the problem.

The introduction of the laser also stimulated additional work on light propagation in the ocean. G. D. Hickman pioneered the use of pulsed lasers to measure water depth in coastal regions and define the environmental properties of ocean and coastal waters. One of the authors (Friedman) spent a number of years working with Hickman and his team in the characterization of surface pollution, using fluorescence and other techniques for detection of oil, algae, and environmental contaminants. Much of that work relied on traditional characterizations of the aquatic environment, including the absorption, scattering, and total attenuation coefficients. We also used a variety of instruments for characterizing water in both the natural and laboratory environments. One of the important instruments in our arsenal was the absorption meter developed by contractors and...