Do you know the color of the ocean? Most would say ‘blue,’ and certainly from space that is generally the case. However, the ocean has a palate far more extensive than many would think. Its color varies hugely depending on where and how you look at it.
Asking the question of ocean surface color can reveal what is on the surface, and with this information, researchers can study how that particular surface interacts with the atmosphere. And so it makes sense that the oceanography department at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
The LDEO science payloads, which fit into the nose cones of the UAVs, are broadly divided into two categories: remote sensing
No matter how you think of it, I am using the term “light volume” to simply mean “how much light,” and since light behaves like a particle (known as the photonUsing Physics for Ocean Research
Many of us know the concept of “conservation of energy,” the law that basically says that the total going in is the same as the total coming out. In fact, science has shown that the only possible difference that can exist between the in and the out is the form of the energy. You already know Einstein’s most famous equation E = mc2, and it is a prime example of energy conservation! It says that matter can be converted to light (and vice versa), so that the particular amount of matter you convert (call it 5 grams) always gives you the same number of photons (5 grams * c2). Light and matter are just two sides of the same coin, and that coin is energy!
Energy conservation is fundamentally how physical oceanographers study the ocean. They measure all forms of energy in the air, all forms of energy in the water, and how those energies give or take from each other in an attempt to determine where the overall net flow of energy. If you measure everything going in and everything coming out, then by energy conservation, you can know the net energy flow.
This net energy exchange at the air-sea boundary is what we use to make weather, climate, and ocean forecasting models ever-more accurate. These models are paramount to continued tracking and planning for the short-term (weather) and the long-term (climate). Note that climate and weather are completely distinct from one other. Weather operates on scales of days, whereas climate operates on scales of centuries or millennia. Understanding both is very important, so that we can avoid catastrophes like runaway greenhouse effect (as on the surface of Venus) or even the lack of any greenhouse gases at all (global ice age).