Laboratory measurements of radiance and reflectance spectra of dilute secondary-treated sewage sludge

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), conducted a research program to evaluate the feasibility of remotely monitoring ocean dumping of waste products such as acid and sewage sludge. One aspect of the research program involved the measurements of upwelled spectral signatures for sewage-sludge mixtures of different concentrations in an 11600-liter tank. This paper describes the laboratory arrangement and presents radiance and reflectance spectra in the visible and near-infrared ranges for concentrations ranging from 9.7 to 180 ppm of secondary-treated sewage sludge mixed with two types of base water. Results indicate that upwelled radiance varies in a near-linear manner with concentration and that the sludge has a practically flat signal response between 420 and 970 nm. Reflectance spectra were obtained for the sewage-sludge mixtures at all wavelengths and concentrations.