Computer simulation of the performance of advanced underwater optical viewing systems

A simulation model has been formulated for the parametric analysis of the capabilities of advanced underwater viewing systems and to facilitate the comparison of the different systems. The water medium is characterized in the model by the absorption coefficient,
a
, the scattering coefficient,
s
, the volume scattering function,
\sigma
, and the polarization coefficient,
\psi_{p}
, of the backscattered light. Monte Carlo techniques are used to calculate effective attenuation coefficients for illuminating, image-forming, and backscattered light. These coefficients permit the most significant effects of multiple scattering to be incorporated into the model. The output of the simulation is the expected signal and backscattered irradiance functions across a strip in the image plane of the receiver.