Light penetration in soil and particulate minerals

Summary Knowledge of light penetration in soils is of particular interest for photolytic degradation of pesticides, for laser‐induced fluorescence spectroscopy and remote sensing, and for understanding better the germination of seeds. To date little information has been available in the literature on this topic. In this paper light penetration in soils is determined successfully using diffuse reflectance and transmittance spectroscopy and the relatively simple Kubelka–Munk model. Using the latter model of light propagation in turbid media, the optical properties of kaolinite, montmorillonite, barium sulphate, goethite and 19 different soils were determined in the wavelength range 275–700 nm. In particular, the light absorption coefficient, k , and light scattering coefficient, s , were determined. The depth at which the light intensity at the surface is reduced by 99% (light penetration depth) and the depth of the sample contributing to the measured reflected radiation (information depth) could also be calculated from k and s . For kaolinite, the light penetration depth ranged between 10 and 200 µm for wavelengths between 275 and 700 nm, respectively; the information depth was between 5 and 80 µm. For soils, the penetration depth was in the range 17–110 µm at 275 nm and 120–300 µm at 700 nm, and the information depth was in the range 8–60 µm at 275 nm and 60–175 µm at 700 nm. Hence, the information depth is about half the penetration depth for media with reflectance smaller than 0.7 (e.g. soils). For dry soils, an empirical relationship was established between the light absorption coefficient and the amount of particle‐size fractions. The effect of water content was also investigated: addition of water to kaolinite reduced its scattering coefficients, whereas the absorption coefficient was hardly affected. For the soils, addition of water had a more complex mode of action affecting both absorption and scattering coefficients. With the measured optical properties of dry minerals and soils it is possible to calculate light intensity profiles with depth and to quantify photochemical processes occurring in these media.