Influence of multiple scattering on the measurement of light attenuation by water filled with bubbles

Using a solution of the radiation transfer equation in the small angle approximation, we examine the effect of multiple scattering on the measurement of the light beam attenuation in an aquatic environment abundant in bubbles created by movement of ship or sea animals. According to the measurement condition, the correction coefficient denoting the extent of multiple scattering is introduced, which is a function of detector field of view (FOV), beam transfer distance, beam size and energy-received section size. Given a typical bubble clouds´ distribution function, numerical computations and the analysis between the correction coefficient and its four parameters are provided. The results show that the multiple scattering is obvious when measuring the light attenuation by water filled with large numbers of bubbles, and the degree of multiple scattering changes along with measurement parameters.