Design And Development Of An Autocalibrating Radiometer For Deep Sea Biooptical Studies

Deep-sea low-light radiometer system

“…The most notable components of the mesopelagic light meter (MLM) system are the two custom low-light radiometers. The radiometers were designed to improve upon previous low-light instrumentation [12,13,18] by selection of solid-state silicon photomultiplier (SPM) devices as detectors. The use of thermoelectrically-cooled SPMs yields high light sensitivity (low dark count rate) with measurement gate times as low as 100 µs.…”

“…The most well-known of these systems is the low-light auto-calibrating radiometer (LoLAR) [18]. At the time the LoLAR was developed, commonly available optical diffusers provided a transmission of less than 1%.…”

“…Most of the available information on flash kinetics, e.g., maximum response and flash duration, was acquired through laboratory measurements of electrically-stimulated bioluminescence [16,17]. Field measurements of bioluminescence have been conducted, most at blue wavelengths, including an example measurement of stimulated bioluminescence [18], characterization of distribution patterns using the spatial plankton analysis technique (SPLAT) [19], and data from a system designed to measure fine-scale coastal bioluminescence [20]. However, a deep-sea capable instrument that can measure in situ flash kinetics at high temporal rates at multiple wavelengths would be useful.…”