Spectrophotometer instruments on the Cabled Array are provided by WET Labs, the AC-S instruments. There are seven WET Labs AC-S Deep spectrophotometers on the Cabled Array that are part of the Benthic Experiment Packages at the Oregon Shelf and Offshore sites, on the seafloor low power junction boxes at Slope Base and Axial Base, on the winched Science Pods on the Shallow Profiler Moorings at Axial Base, Slope Base and at the Oregon Endurance Offshore sites (which have made >27,000 profiles since 2015). These instruments measure optical attenuation and adsorption in seawater.
A Spectrophotometer measures optical attenuation and absorption by characterizing the way seawater absorbs and scatters light. These combined measurements indicate sample turbidity. Optical absorption and attenuation instruments, like the WET Labs AC-S instrument used by OOI, allow total scattering to be derived for living and detrital particles in the ocean.