Description: Compared to the open ocean where blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) perform well for data communications, in coastal and harbor environments optical transmission becomes worse and the color of lowest attenuation shifts to green. Another problem concerns the “green–yellow gap” of LEDs, as the quantum efficiency of current commercially available green LEDs is poor. Since energy consumption is an important factor, particularly for battery-powered systems, using blue LEDs is a tradeoff. Recently, phosphor-converted green LEDs, which are pumped by highly efficient blue LEDs, have been introduced to the market, and this type of LED promises better performance. This paper compares the use of blue, green, and converted green LEDs for applications in optical underwater communication systems in coastal waters. Theoretical aspects of the overall LED-water-detector channel are presented. A method for determining individual system coefficients is developed, and the impact on the communication system performance is explained. Practical approaches are introduced, complemented by measurements in the Baltic Sea.

Description: Satellite remote sensing of chlorophyll a concentration (Chl-a) in the Arctic Ocean is spatially and temporally limited and needs to be supplemented and validated with substantial volumes of in situ observations. Here, we evaluated the capability of obtaining highly resolved in situ surface Chl-a using underway spectrophotometry operated during two summer cruises in 2015 and 2016 in the Fram Strait. Results showed that Chl-a measured using high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) was well related (R2 = 0.90) to the collocated particulate absorption line height at 676 nm obtained from the underway spectrophotometry system. This enabled continuous surface Chl-a estimation along the cruise tracks. When used to validate Chl-a operational products as well as to assess the Chl-a algorithms of the aqua moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS-A) and Sentinel-3 Ocean Land Color Imager (OLCI) Level 2 Chl-a operational products, and from OLCI Level 2 products processed with Polymer atmospheric correction algorithm (version 4.1), the underway spectrophotometry based Chl-a data sets proved to be a much more sufficient data source by generating over one order of magnitude more match-ups than those obtained from discrete water samples. Overall, the band ratio (OCI, OC4) Chl-a operational products from MODIS-A and OLCI as well as OLCI C2RCC products showed acceptable results. The OLCI Polymer standard output provided the most reliable Chl-a estimates, and nearly as good results were obtained from the OCI algorithm with Polymer atmospheric correction method. This work confirms the great advantage of the underway spectrophotometry in enlarging in situ Chl-a data sets for the Fram Strait and improving satellite Chl-a validation and Chl-a algorithm assessment over discrete water sample analysis in the laboratory.