There are five origins for the light that reaches a remote sensor pointed at a coral reef.
Within the water, there are six processes that affect light transfer.
We are using the radiative transfer model Hydrolight to better understand the water column's role in remote sensing imagery. With Hydrolight, we can vary water depth, water column optical properties, bottom composition, sun angle, and sea state. By running the model several times under varied conditions, we can perform a sensitivity analysis on the capabilities of our algorithms.