On the Influence of Spatial Fluctuations of the Water Inherent Optical Properties on the Energy of a Lidar Echo Signal Coming from a Water

Abstract

Theoretical models of the statistical characteristics of the lidar echo signal have been developed to interpret the results of optical sounding of heavily eutrophicated water bodies. Formulas are obtained for calculating the statistically average value and coefficient of variation of the energy of the elastic backscattering signal coming from the near-surface layer of water with randomly inhomogeneous absorption and scattering coefficients. Examples of the dependence of the indicated signal characteristics on the coefficients of variation of the optical characteristics of water are given. It has been established that fluctuations in the absorption coefficient lead to an increase in the average energy of the received signal, and fluctuations in the scattering coefficient to its slight decrease. A significant decrease in the average echo signal energy can be observed with cross-correlated fluctuations in the absorption and scattering coefficients, i. e. in the case when the attenuation coefficient fluctuates at a constant single scattering albedo. Considerations are made on how algorithms for estimating the average values of the optical characteristics of water and the parameters of their inhomogeneities from the average value and the coefficient of variation of the echo signal energy can be constructed.