FIELD PERFORMANCE OF THE ST 1000 SPECTROMETERIN PASSIVE OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING OF WATER BODIES

Abstract

. The ST 1000 is a multipurpose fibre optic spectrometer produced by Ocean Optics Inc. It consists of three CCD array spectrometers mounted on the same electronic circuitry board and driven by the electronics ofthe main spectrometer. The spectral band of our instrument is 350-850 nm with average resolution of 0.5 nm. Light is conducted to the gratings through 2 m long fibre optics. For data acquisition a plug-in board PCMCIA card is used. Integration time, number of scans, and the interval between them can be varied by software provided by the manufacturer. We built a frame for the instrument to carry out field measurements, calibrated the measuring system, and tested the suitability of the instrument for remote sensing of aquatic environments. Comparison with airborne and shipboard remote sensing spectrometers as well as underwater spectrometer data was carried out. Our results show that the ST 1000 spectrometer can be used in remote sensing although it is designed for laboratory measurements.