Seasonal and spatial variability of surface seawater fluorescence properties in the Baltic and Nordic Seas: results of lidar experiments

The paper analyses experimental measurements of laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectra in different seawaters. The fluorescence parameters, calculated from LIF spectra as the ratio of the integrals of fluorescence and Raman signal intensities, provide information about the relative changes in the concentrations of fluorescing molecules. Gathered during several cruises in 1994–2004 in the Baltic and Nordic Seas, all the data are presented as scatter plots of the fluorescence parameters of chlorophyll a (Chl a) and coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM). Satisfactory correlations between these two parameters were found a) for open Nordic Seas waters, b) for the southern Baltic in blooming periods only, and c) for the Gulf of Gdańsk in non-blooming periods only.