GLOBAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE INHERENT OPTICAL-PROPERTIES OF THE OCEANS

We have collected data during eight separate research cruises from ope n ocean to estuarine oceanic environments. Inherent optical property d ata collected during these cruises were incorporated into a large data base totaling 1914 vertical samples. The range of each inherent optica l property within this database spans over 2 orders of magnitude. Usin g this database, we examine the spectral relationships of each of the inherent optical properties based on the measurements made at 488 nm. The results of this study show that there are dependencies in the indi vidual inherent optical properties (IOP) spectra that are linearly rel ated. The information from the regression models is used to explain th e linear dependencies observed in the global data set. A separate data set collected from a recent cruise is used to compare regional relati onships with the global. The implication of this research is that over a diversity of oceanic regimes, there are fundamental, first-order re lationships in the individual IOP spectra. These relationships can pro vide an estimate of the individual IOP spectral relationships when no information about the IOP is available, as is often the case in ocean color remote sensing. More detailed models, however, may be necessary in order to more accurately predict the IOP spectral relationships on regional scales where the expected range of variability is small.