Nearshore Bathymetry Estimation Using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Imagery

Abstract

A method to estimate nearshore bathymetry using SAR imagery is presented in this paper. A Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT) and Wavelet hybrid method is proposed to analyze the wave spectra and calculate the wavelength of the long swell waves from SAR acquisitions. The water depth can be retrieved using the linear dispersion relation for shallow water, which requires wavelength and wave period as input parameters. The retrieved bathymetric method are validated with the SAR image over Western Africa and Haida Gwaii. The retrieved results are compared with the ground truth data and have an over 0.9 correlation coefficient. It is found that this method is more feasible to the swell waves with larger significant wave height.