Evidence for wavelength dependence of the scattering phase function and its implication for modeling radiance transfer in shelf seas

More than 90% of stations from the Irish and Celtic Seas are found to have significantly higher backscattering ratios in the blue (470 nm) than in the red (676 nm) wave band. Attempts to obtain optical closure by use of radiance transfer modeling were least successful for stations at which backscattering ratios are most strongly wavelength dependent. Significantly improved radiance transfer simulation results were obtained with a modified scattering correction algorithm for AC-9 absorption measurements that took wavelength dependency in the scattering phase function into account.