Appl Opt. 2020 Apr 1;59(10):APS1-APS2. doi: 10.1364/AO.392549.
Through decades of efforts and practices, we have achieved great progress in understanding ocean biology and biogeochemistry through satellite measurements of ocean (water) color, or passive remote sensing. These include detailed global maps of the distribution of surface phytoplankton, the production of newly formed particulate organic matter through photosynthesis (i.e., primary production), as well as the change and feedback of phytoplankton in a changing climate, to name a few. However, these results are still far from a full account of ocean biology and biogeochemistry, where we want more detailed information of phytoplankton (e.g., types and sizes), as well as information in the vertical dimension. For such, we are happy to see new developments in ocean optics and ocean color remote sensing. These include, but certainly are not limited to, hyperspectral sensors, measurements via polarized setups, as well as ocean lidar systems. In particular, through pumping laser light into deeper ocean, lidar has demonstrated great potential to fill the gap of passive ocean color remote sensing. These developments in technology are providing exciting new findings where breakthroughs in ocean biogeochemistry are on the horizon. Thus, we organized this feature issue in Applied Optics to summarize a few recent developments and achievements, where readers and the community can easily capture progress on both fronts, as well as the potential and advantages of the fusion of passive and active optical sensing. Specifically, this issue contains 12 papers describing research in both active and passive optical remote sensing of aquatic environment. They are still limited in number and subject, but are expected to stimulate the ocean color community with findings relevant for satellite applications.
经过几十年的努力和实践，我们通过卫星测量海洋（水）颜色或被动遥感，在了解海洋生物学和生物地球化学方面取得了巨大进展。这些进展包括详细的全球表层浮游植物分布图、通过光合作用（即初级生产）形成的新形成的颗粒有机物质的产量，以及浮游植物在气候变化中的变化和反馈等。然而，这些结果仍远不能全面描述海洋生物学和生物地球化学，我们希望获得更多关于浮游植物的详细信息（例如，类型和大小），以及垂直维度的信息。为此，我们很高兴看到海洋光学和海洋颜色遥感的新发展。这些发展包括但不限于高光谱传感器、偏振设置下的测量以及海洋激光雷达系统。特别是，通过将激光泵入深海，激光雷达在填补被动海洋颜色遥感的空白方面显示出巨大的潜力。这些技术的发展提供了令人兴奋的新发现，海洋生物地球化学的突破即将到来。因此，我们在《应用光学》杂志上组织了这个特刊，以总结一些最近的发展和成就，读者和社区可以很容易地捕捉到这两个方面的进展，以及被动和主动光学传感融合的潜力和优势。具体来说，本期特刊包含 12 篇描述水色环境主动和被动光学遥感研究的论文。它们的数量和主题仍然有限，但有望以与卫星应用相关的发现激发海洋颜色社区。
