Color Catalogue of Life in Ice: Surface Biosignatures on Icy Worlds.

With thousands of discovered planets orbiting other stars and new missions that will explore our solar system, the search for life in the universe has entered a new era. However, a reference database to enable our search for life on the surface of icy exoplanets and exomoons by using records from Earth's icy biota is missing. Therefore, we developed a spectra catalogue of life in ice to facilitate the search for extraterrestrial signs of life.

Soil directioal (biconical) reflectance in the principal plane with varied illumination angle under dry and saturated conditions.

Change in directional (biconical) spectral reflectance was monitored for three soil samples under air dry and saturated conditions in the laboratory. The illumination angle was set consecutively at θ  = -10°, -40°, and -70° (left side of the sample on the principal plane), while the observation angle ranged from θ  = -60° to + 60° (both sides of the sample in the principal plane) in 5° increments. The soil samples were chosen to represent a variety of soil properties.

Correction for reflected sky radiance in low-altitude coastal hyperspectral images.

Low-altitude coastal hyperspectral imagery is sensitive to reflections of sky radiance at the water surface. Even in the absence of sun glint, and for a calm water surface, the wide range of viewing angles may result in pronounced, low-frequency variations of the reflected sky radiance across the scan line depending on the solar position. The variation in reflected sky radiance can be obscured by strong high-spatial-frequency sun glint and at high altitude by path radiance.

A Monte Carlo study of the seagrass-induced depth bias in bathymetric lidar.

A bathymetric lidar survey is the most cost efficient method of producing bathymetric maps in near shore areas where the ocean bottom is both highly variable and of greatest importance for shipping and recreation. So far, not much attention has been paid to the influence of bottom materials on the lidar signals. This study addresses this issue using a Monte Carlo modeling technique.

Development of a laboratory spectral backscattering instrument: design and simulation.

A typical integrating sphere configuration for measuring backscatter includes a conventional cuvette with flat windows. This arrangement results in a significant amount of total internal reflection, preventing a large portion of the backscattered flux from entering the integrating sphere-detector system. Use of a semispherical cuvette overcomes this problem.