wave.out

The wave.out file summarizes key optical properties at the surface for each simulated wavelength, making it particularly useful for remote sensing applications.

All AOP arrays (eu, ed, polar_lu, etc.) are normalized upstream by norma(lam). When normalized to below‑water downwelling at the interface, norma(lam) = sum(ed(lam, :, :, k=0). When normalized to above‑water incidence, norma(lam) = cositer(lam).

The file contains the following columns:

wavelength: The wavelength of light
Eu: Total upwelling planar “irradiance” at the water surface (depth index k=0), already normalized by norma(lam). Units: dimensionless (AOP). Interpretation: Relative magnitude of upwelling planar flux just below the surface.
Ed: Total downwelling planar “irradiance” below the water surface, normalized by norma(lam). Units: dimensionless (AOP). Interpretation: Relative magnitude of downwelling planar flux just below the surface.
R: Remote sensing reflectance, calculated as the ratio of upwelling irradiance to downwelling irradiance (Eu/Ed) just below the surface.
Lu: Upwelling “radiance” just below the sea surface. This is the upwelling energy confined to a specific solid angle, often what is measured by a satellite or airborne sensor. Units: dimensionless (AOP proxy). Interpretation: Relative strength of near‑zenith upwelling radiance just below the surface.
Ed(a): Total downwelling planar “irradiance” at the water surface, normalized by norma(lam). Units: dimensionless (AOP). Interpretation: Relative magnitude of downwelling planar flux just above the surface.
Lu(a):Upwelling “radiance” just above the sea surface. This is the upwelling energy confined to a specific solid angle, often what is measured by a satellite or airborne sensor. Units: dimensionless (AOP proxy). Interpretation: Relative strength of near‑zenith upwelling radiance just above the surface.
Einc_max: Max‑normalized, angle‑aware incident spectrum computed from the Monte Carlo estimator cositer(lam)=SUM(cos⁡$\theta_i$) where $\theta_i$ are the angles of incidence of the launched photons for wavelengthlam`. Units: dimensionless (shape only). Interpretation: A clean relative spectrum of the above‑water incident irradiance that includes the angle‑of‑incidence projection. It is normalized so the peak across all wavelengths is 1.0.

Using `Einc_max` to Obtain Relative Wm^-2 (or Wm^-2nm^-1)

All the AOP columns above are dimensionless (they were normalized by norma(lam)). To reconstruct relative physical units, multiply any normalized AOP (except reflectance R) by Einc_max. Einc_max captures the spectral shape and the angle‑of‑incidence projection. It is max‑normalized across wavelengths, so the peak is 1.0.

If needed, users can apply a single global constant $C$ to convert the relative values to absolute Wm^-2 (or Wm^-2nm^-1).

Using Einc_max to Obtain Relative Wm-2 (or Wm-2nm-1)

Using `Einc_max` to Obtain Relative Wm^-2 (or Wm^-2nm^-1)