Determination of water depth with high‐resolution satellite imagery over variable bottom types

A standard algorithm for determining depth in clear water from passive sensors exists; but it requires tuning of five parameters and does not retrieve depths where the bottom has an extremely low albedo. To address these issues, we developed an empirical solution using a ratio of reflectances that has only two tunable parameters and can be applied to low‐albedo features. The two algorithms—the standard linear transform and the new ratio transform— were compared through analysis of IKONOS satellite imagery against lidar bathymetry. The coefficients for the ratio algorithm were tuned manually to a few depths from a nautical chart, yet performed as well as the linear algorithm tuned using multiple linear…

• NU
  Northwestern University
• NO
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration