Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C513626/1
Providing UK capacity for modelling the inherent optical properties of aquatic systems.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor P Mumby, University of Exeter, Biosciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr J Hedley, University of Exeter, Biosciences
- Grant held at:
- University of Exeter, Biosciences
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Freshwater
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Pollution and Waste
- Natural Resource Management
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Water In The Atmosphere
- Radiative Processes & Effects
- Abstract:
- Optical remote sensing is used to monitor the health and status of many aquatic systems including both the water column (e.g. chlorophyll load) and biotope composition of the seabed. The success of remote sensing will depend partly on the sensor's capability and partly on the type of water body; if the water is turbid, then success is likely to be poor. Many remote sensing methods make simplifying assumptions about the optical properties of the water. These assumptions may be acceptable for some relatively easy mapping objectives but less so for more challenging tasks. To address the more challenging tasks, such as monitoring the amount of live coral on a reef, more sophisticated algorithms are being developed based on radiative transfer models of the water body and reef. Some of these methods can only be implemented if the inherent optical properties (IOPs) have been measured in the field. Other methods are more flexible and allow simple approximations of optical properties. However, such methods may be vastly improved if based on actual IOPs. Surprisingly, the UK research community does not have access to the instruments needed to quantify IOPs. We propose to buy the most important instrument (the AC-S-25) and use it to test important hypotheses about coral reef remote sensing. We will then reposit the equipment in the NERC Equipment Pool for Field Spectroscopy for wider use by the Earth Observation community. These tools will allow UK scientists to improve radiative transfer models of aquatic systems and compete for international funds to develop new remote sensing techniques. Field work for this proposal will be supported by an on-going NERC grant to the PIs which is testing new methods of spectral unmixing for mapping coral reefs with hyperspectral imagery. This proposal will extend that study and allow us to quantify the benefit, in terms of mapping accuracy, of using IOP-based algorithms for mapping coral reefs. We will test a wide range of scenarios because we have access to both multispectral and hyperspectral imagery including Hyperion (30 m pixels) and CASI (2m to 0.5 m pixels).
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C513626/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Small Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Small Grants
This grant award has a total value of £30,380
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Other Costs | Total - Equipment |
|---|---|
| £12,755 | £17,625 |
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