Active/Passive Optical Hydrography

Abstract

The Airborne Bathymetric Survey (ABS) concept was adopted by the Defense Mapping Agency and the Navy in 1985. The ABS system combines two independent sensors, an active lidar and a passive multispectral scanner using GPS satellite data for positioning, into one integrated system. The objective of the developmental effort was to build a system that is capable of rapidly charting coastal bathymetry from an aircraft in a variety of environmental conditions and to provide the software and algorithms necessary to process the data. The laser sounder and the multispectral scanner collect data in swaths beneath the aircraft. At an altitude of 500 meters, the swath width are about 270 and 840 meters, respectively. Since both are optical sensors, their bottom detection capabilities were limited by the water clarity. In relatively clear coastal waters they were able to measure depths down to 3 optical depths.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1990
Accession Number
ADA230697

Entities

People

  • Maria T. Kalcic
  • Michael C. Harris
  • Stephen C. Lingsch
  • Stephen P. Haimbach

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Airborne
  • Aircrafts
  • Algorithms
  • Altitude
  • Bathymetry
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Corporations
  • Data Processing
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Integrated Systems
  • Optical Detectors
  • Parallel Computing
  • Parallel Processing
  • Remote Sensing

Readers

  • Computer Vision.
  • Oceanography.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Space