Optical methods and facilities for expeditious monitoring of the ecological status of sea water

This paper discusses modem approaches to the use of optical methods for stu dying the medium of sea water and expeditiously monitoring its ecological s tatus. Attention is mainly directed toward a discussion of the possibilitie s of solving this problem by using optical information technologies that co mbine full-scale hydrooptical studies and numerical modelling of the redist ribution of absorbing and scattering impurities in sea water. (C) 2001 The Optical Society of America.