Accuracy limitations on Brillouin lidar measurements of temperature and sound speed in the ocean

Abstract

There are five mutually dependent variables relevant to Brillouin lidar measurements of temperature and sound speed in the ocean; they are (1) the Brillouin shift, (2) the sound speed, (3) the index of refraction, (4) the temperature, and (5) the salinity. We use three well-known relations to analyze rigorously the interdependence of these five variables. Clearly, a Brillouin shift measurement does not provide a stand-alone determination of temperature or sound speed; one more variable or one more relation must be known. The use of mean values of salinity that have been obtained by an analysis of a large set of historical in situ data is considered for this additional relation.