AquaTracka III Fluorometer (for Chlorophyll a, Rhodamine or Fluorescein monitoring)

AquaTracka III is a compact, lightweight, submersible fluorometer for the detection of chlorophyll a, dye tracing or turbidity. Manufactured in titanium, it is rated to 6000m. For deck and laboratory applications a flow through cowling is available. This instrument can sense chemical fluorescence or light scatter in the visible and near infrared (400 to 800nm). Versatility is achieved by the selection of appropriate optical narrow bandpass filters to match the excitation and emission wavelengths of the fluorophor, eg, chlorophyll a, rhodamine or fluorescein. It may be configured as a nephelometer by using the same band pass filters for both excitation and emission.

The AquaTracka III uses a rugged pulsed xenon light source which is not prone to sudden failure and gives low power consumption with excellent detection limits. Similarly, the photo-diode detector is virtually indestructible and provides excellent calibration stability over long time intervals.

A dual-beam ratiometric arrangement is used with a reference channel monitoring the intensity of each flash, thus compensating for light source ageing. The ratio of the signals from sample and reference channels is computed and output as a logarithmically scaled analogue voltage to give the wide, four decade range of the instrument.