Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group
  • ETOP 2015 Proceedings
  • (Optica Publishing Group, 2015),
  • paper ETM03

Colors of the Yellowstone thermal pools for teaching optics

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

Nature provides many beautiful optical phenomena that can be used to teach optical principles. Here we describe an interdisciplinary education project based on a simple computer model of the colors observed in the famous thermal pools of Yellowstone National Park in the northwestern United States. The primary wavelength-dependent parameters that determine the widely varying pool colors are the reflectance of the rocks or the microbial mats growing on the rocks beneath the water (the microbial mat color depends on water temperature) and optical absorption and scattering in the water. This paper introduces a teaching module based on a one-dimensional computer model that starts with measured reflectance spectra of the microbial mats and modifies the spectra with depth-dependent absorption and scattering in the water. This module is designed to be incorporated into a graduate course on remote sensing systems, in a section covering the propagation of light through air and water, although it could be adapted to a general university optics course. The module presents the basic 1-D radiative transfer equation relevant to this problem, and allows them to build their own simple model. Students can then simulate the colors that would be observed for different variations of the microbial mat reflectance spectrum, skylight spectrum, and water depth.

© 2015 OSA, SPIE, IEEE Photonics Society

PDF Article
More Like This
Teaching Optics Concepts through an Approach that Emphasizes the “Colors of Nature”

Stephen M. Pompea and Laura D. Carsten-Conner
OUT01 Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (ETOP) 2015

Photonics in Nature: Yellowstone National Park in IR

Michael Vollmer, Joseph A. Shaw, Paul W. Nugent, Wilson Harris, Kendra Gillis, William Weiss, Logan Carpenter, Amy Carpenter, and Bryan Scherrer
104521B Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (ETOP) 2017

Mapping the Lidar Attenuation Coefficient in Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park, USA

Michael R. Roddewig, James H. Churnside, and Joseph A. Shaw
PTu3F.2 Propagation Through and Characterization of Atmospheric and Oceanic Phenomena (pcAOP) 2018

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved