Multispectral bathymetry using a simple physically based algorithm

A simple method for estimating water depths from multispectral imagery is described and is applied to several IKONOS data sets for which independent measurements of the water depth are available. The methodology is based on a physical model for the shallow-water reflectance, and is capable of correcting for at least some range of water-quality and bottom-reflectance variations. Corrections for sun-glint effects are applied prior to the application of the bathymetry algorithm. The accuracy of the depth algorithm is determined by comparison with ground-truth measurements, and comparisons between the observed and calculated radiances are presented for one case to illustrate how the a gorithm corrects for water-attenuation and/or bottom-reflectance variations.