SBIR-STTR Award

Measuring light transmission through sea ice in arctic regions is important to the understanding of the biological potential, the regional heat and mass balance, and for the investigation of possible through-ice communications. Past measurements have been made with a submersible scanning spectroradiometer. In this study a design will be developed for a two-spectrometer instrument to measure simultaneously the surface irradiance with a standard cosine receptor and the under-iceirradiance by means of submersible cosine receptor-fiberoptic bundle coupled to the surface spectroradiometer. Three types of underwater cosine receptors will be tested. A modification to an existing PSII spectroradiometer will be made to accommodate a CCD area array detector, and temperature sensitivity to -30 degrees C will be measured. Scattered light measurements will be carried out on an existing LabSpec to test the holographic grating order separation filter combination for light leakage. An absorption filter will be specified to reduce the peak sensitivity region of the array to increase the dynamic range at short and long wavelength. An investigation will be made to define the best method to maintain a one hour battery charge life in temperatures reaching -30 degrees C. The Phase I study will last for six months.

Keywords:
SPECTRORADIOMETER, COMMUNICATION, POLAR, BIO-OPTICS, IRRADIANCE, SEA ICE, SUBMERSIBLE, FIBEROPTICS

Measuring light transmission through sea ice in Arctic regions is important to the understanding of the biological potential, the regional heat and mass balance, and for the investigation of possible through-ice communication. Past measurements have been made with a submersible scanning spectroradiometer. The research community has requirements to make optical measurements of sea ice under cloudy and partly cloudy conditions. A dual spectrometer detector array based instrument is required to meet these requirements. In Phase II, we will design, build and test a prototype and revised prototype dual CCD spectroradiometer to measure simultaneously the surface irradiance with a standard cosine receptor and the under-ice irradiance by means of a submersible cosine receptor-fiberoptic bundle coupled to one of the surface spectroradiometers. Both the first and the revised prototype will be tested in three stages: 1) in the laboratory; 2) at a frozen pond in New Hampshire; and 3) in the Arctic. Phase II of this project will last for 24 months.

Keywords:
SPECTRORADIOMETRY COMMUNICATIONS POLAR BIO-OTPICS IRRADIANCE SEA ICE SUBMERSIBLE FIBEROPTICS