Multistatic, multifrequency scattering from zooplankton

Very satisfactory results have been obtained in estimating size abundances of small zooplankton such as copepods from inversion of multifrequency backscattering measurements. Application of this method has become almost routine in many situations. Fluctuations in the scatterer physical properties (density and compressibility) tend principally to cause errors in the abundance estimates whereas size estimates are largely unaffected. The model commonly employed for small crustacean scatterers, a truncated-mode version of the Anderson fluid sphere model, predicts bistatic scattering as well as monostatic backscattering. The behavior of bistatic scattering at angles approaching 90 deg predicted by this model shows that scattering spectra at these angles are quite sensitive to physical properties. This suggests that simultaneous measurements at multiple frequencies and one or more off-axis angles might permit estimation of the physical properties of zooplanktonic scatterers as well as their sizes. Preliminary modeling has been done for a single fluid scatterer to illustrate the potential for simultaneous estimation of size, density, and compressibility of zooplanktonic organisms in a laboratory setting. The character of the bistatic scattering may argue for nontraditional methods for inverting this sort of data.