title: Power spectrum and fractal dimension of laser backscattering from the ocean.
abstract: We flew an airborne lidar perpendicular to the coastline along straight-line transects that varied in length between 230 and 280 km. The sample spacing was approximately 3 m, so we sampled almost five decades of spatial scales. Except for the return from right at the surface, the power spectra of backscattered power had a power-law dependence on spatial frequency, with a slope of approximately 1.49. This corresponds to a fractal dimension of 1.76. This implies that the distribution is not as patchy as that of a purely turbulent process.
authors.affiliation: Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Churnside
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wilson