SuBOPS
Submersible Biospherical Optical Profiling System

The Submersible Biospherical Optical Profiling System (SuBOPS) is a water-based in situ sensor used to measure water's apparent optical properties (AOPs). The optical profiler is mounted on a kite-like free-fall backplane and descends into water at speeds less than 20 cm per second to measure AOPs. It operates across 19 channels in the 320 to 860 nm spectral range with a 10 nm full-width at half maximum bandwidth. SuBOPS has a vertical resolution of less than 1 cm and a data acquisition rate of 12 Hz. It has collected vertical profiles in temperate and arctic waters at depths of less than 3 m.