THE MAIN OBJECTIVES ARE TO: (1) DEVELOP A PROTOCOL AND QUANTIFY THE UNCERTAINTIES OF A NEW FILTER-PAD APPROACH AND THE EXISTING FILTER-PAD METHODS TO MEASURING THE PARTICULATE ABSORPTION COEFFICIENT; (2) DEVELOPA MODEL TO PARTITION THE ABSORPTION COEFFICIENT OF SEAWATER INTO PHYTOPLANKTON NONALGAL PARTICULATE (NAP) AND COLORED DISSOLVED ORGANIC MATTER (CDOM) COMPONENTS WITH A KEY NOVEL ASPECT OF SEPARATING NAP FROM CDOM; AND (3) CONDUCT A PILOT STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NAP ABSORPTION AND NAP ORGANIC CARBON TO ENABLE A CAPABILITY FOR REMOTE SENSING OF CARBON POOLS ASSOCIATED WITH SEPARATE PHYTOPLANKTON AND NON-PHYTOPLANKTON COMPONENTS. THE OVERALL APPROACH TO ADDRESS THESE OBJECTIVES WILL BE BASED PRIMARILY ON THE ANALYSIS OF EXISTING LABORATORY AND FIELD DATA BUT WILL ALSO ENCOMPASS A COMBINATION OF LIMITED NUMBER OF LABORATORY AND FIELD MEASUREMENTS TO COLLECT NEW DATA AND THE APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING DATA FROM HIGH SPECTRAL RESOLUTION SENSOR HICO.