The History and Future of the Secchi Disk

Author:

Zielinski, Oliver

Book Title:

Angelo Secchi and Nineteenth Century Science: The Multidisciplinary Contributions of a Pioneer and Innovator

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Book Editor:

Consolmagno, Guy

Chinnici, Ileana

Format:

Book Chapter

Year:

2021

Publisher:

Springer

Place published:

Cham

Language:

English

Abstract:

A standardized method to determine water clarity (transparency) was adopted at the end of the nineteenth century. This method, lowering a 30 cm diameter white painted disk into the water until it disappeared out of sight, was extensively investigated by Alessandra Cialdi and Angelo Secchi and published 1865 in the journal Il Nuovo Cimento Giornale di Fisica, Chimica e Storia Naturale. It is now universally recognized as the Secchi disk method. The Secchi disk method and its corresponding parameter, the Secchi disk depth, today continues to be a subject of scientific investigation and theoretical considerations. It is even available in a smartphone app (www.secchidisk.org), and its data can be visualized in a global historic dataset (www.eyeonwater.org). Algorithms are available and operationally used to convert ocean color satellite data into Secchi disk depth. Combining historical and ongoing Secchi disk observations with satellite products, standardized water clarity products are at hand enabling researchers to assess long-term changes in water clarity in global seas and freshwater environments.

Who (Jesuits):

Secchi, Angelo, 1818–1878

What (Subjects):

Missions -- Sciences -- Earth Sciences

Where (Locations):

Europe -- Italy

When (Centuries):

19th century

Worldcat URL:

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1240209685

Publisher URL:

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-58384-2_13

Page Range:

215-224

ISBN:

978-3-030-58386-6

978-3-030-58383-5

978-3-030-58384-2

DOI:

10.1007/978-3-030-58384-2_13