An Expendable, Multi-Spectral, Surfzone, Optical Measurements System

Areté Associates’ is proposing to develop a hyper-spectral, IOP sensor system that can be deployed by a variety of means in the surfzones of forward areas. It will measure, record and report IOPs that are vital to naval MCM operations. The sensor system will be inexpensive enough to be expendable, but survivable enough to be deployed for a period of up to a few days without failure. Communications between sensors and their base station will be via satellite link. Sensor locations in moored or UUV-borne applications will be determined by outfitting the communications modules with GPS. If deployed on a drifting body the sensor will continuously report its data. Our method is to develop a compact IOP sensor designed around the novel concept of a hyper-spectral modulation transfer radiometer. This instrument will measure the modulation transfer function (MTF) through a volume of water. The modulation transfer function (MTF) is a measure of how light is scattered and absorbed while propagating through an optical system. The scattering and attenuation coefficients will be directly calculated from the MTF data. Hyper-spectral backscatter and source normalization data will also be collected.