Hyperspectral Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (HyCODE)

Introduction

The Hyperspectral Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (HyCODE) is an Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsored five-year interdisciplinary program. HyCODE field experiments are located 1) off the coast of New Jersey at the Long-term Ecological Observatory site in 15 m water depth (LEO-15), 2) on the west Florida Shelf as part of the ONR Ecology of Harmful Algal Blooms ( EcoHAB) program, and 3) in the Bahamas near Lee Stocking Island as part of the ONR Coastal Benthic Optical Processes (CoBOP) program. This website focuses on the New Jersey shelf, which is located in the New York Bight (NYB) and the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAB). The main objective of the HyCODE program is to develop an understanding of the diverse processes that control inherent and apparent optical properties (IOPs and AOPs, respectively) in the coastal ocean by use of hyperspectral imagery. Basic research is centered on the investigation of the impact of relatively small-scale physical, biological, and chemical processes on near-surface spectral IOPs and AOPs. Some of the processes under investigation for the HyCODE project include advection of optically important material, phytoplankton growth and loss, bubble injection, sediment resuspension, fronts, and internal waves. Applied research focuses on the development and validation of hyperspectral ocean color algorithms.

Our study as part of the HyCODE program concerns the prediction of IOPs and AOPs and their temporal and spatial variability, which bear on underwater visibility, improved capabilities for naval operations in the coastal ocean, and the health of the coastal ecosystem. Specifically, our objectives are to:
1) Capture variability of the vertical and horizontal structure of both optical and physical properties on time scales ranging from minutes to months.
2) Provide the maximum number of in situ observations (highest possible number of match-ups) of IOPs and AOPs possible for calibrating, groundtruthing, and relating subsurface optical properties (algorithm development) to satellite data, and to develop, test, and validate optical models and high-resolution interdisciplinary models of the coastal ocean.
3) Study processes which contribute to temporal and spatial (horizontal and vertical) variability of spectral IOPs and AOPs (e.g., upwelling, downwelling, fronts, filaments, eddies, blooms, larger-scale circulation patterns, wave fields, water column stratification, current shears, near surface and near bottom mixing, diurnal and seasonal cycles, riverine and runoff inflows).

We hypothesize that:
1) Moored bio-optical data can be used to produce continuous time series of vertical profiles which can be related to both the mooring-derived surface remote sensing reflectance and column integrated remote sensing reflectance obtained from satellite data.
2) Inclusion of a limited number of key in situ optical and physical measurements in conjunction with satellite data in coupled models will improve determinations and predictions of variability of spectral IOPs and AOPs related to physical processes.
3) Upwelling fronts and internal solitary waves (ISWs) are responsible for significant variability in IOPs and AOPs on the New Jersey continental shelf and are responsible for major surface signatures in the water-leaving spectral radiance to be observed by satellites at particular wavelengths.

HyCODE Site Map

HyCODE Dep #1 Mooring Diagram