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The Upstate Freshwater Institute has been conducting research on the optical characteristics of freshwater systems for over twenty years. UFI has placed particular emphasis on quantifying the roles various materials play in regulating water clarity. Clarity, the visibility of submerged objects, is closely coupled to the public's perception of water quality. UFI continues to expand its capabilities in this research area, including the acquisition of state-of-the-art optical instrumentation. Field Measurements (1) (2) (3) (4-5) (1) Secchi disc - the oldest instrument for optical characterization of water; it continues to be a powerful tool. (2) SeaBird - a "free fall" instrument that collects continuous profiles of a variety of valuable parameters. temperature - measure of stratification, density differences (non-optical measurement) optical back scatter (OBS) - measure of turbidity colored dissolved organic material (CDOM Fluorescence) - measure of color, gelbstoff, and dissolved organic carbon chlorophyll fluorescence - measure of chlorophyll specific conductance - tracer (non-optical measurement) beam attenuation coefficient (BAC) - measure of turbidity scalar irradiance, and up-and downwelling cosine sensors - measure of light extinction, reflectance, estimation of absorption and scattering coefficients (3) SAFIre (spectral absorption and fluorescence instrument) - a multi channel in situ instrument which measures fluorescence at multiple excitation and emission wavelengths. May be used to determine the type and sources of dissolved organic matter in water. (4) AC-S - a dual-path underwater spectrophotometer for the determination of the transmittance due to absorption (a; pigment content of particles and water), attenuation (c; adsorption plus scattering), and spectral scattering coefficient(b)..  (5) BB9 - measures the backscattering coefficient (bb) at multiple wavelengths throughout the water column Laboratory Measurements (6) (6) integrating sphere - a benchtop spectrophotometer used to measure spectral absoption of water suspensions and filtered particles.

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last updated: January 23, 2008