FIGURE 3.

Monte Carlo simulations to estimate coral tissue optical properties. Escaping light (ϕ) as a function of radial distance (r) from the incident laser light beam as measured over the intact coral tissue surface. Monte Carlo simulations were run for 5 μ_a values, assuming μ_s’ = 0.6 (A), 3.2 (B), and 17.8 cm^-1 (C). The experimental data are black squares (mean ± SD, n = 13 repetitions). The match between experiment and simulation was based on both the slope and absolute values of the ϕ(r) curves. The best choice was μ_a = 1.8 cm^-1 and μ_s’ = 10 cm^-1.