Optical imagery applications are in constant evolution. The range of available sensors is widening so it increases the possibilities and improves the competitiveness of already existing products. With Sentinel-2, an image is available every 5 days so it maximizes the amount of interesting data to analyse over a short time period.
The bathymetry, benthic classification and water quality retrieval in shallow waters from optical sensors has to take into account several parameters that modify the light backscattered upwards the sea surface. These parameters are:
- the water content that impacts the light travelling in the water column
- the light path length (so the water depth)
- the reflection (albedo) of the seafloor (hence the benthic classification)
They are retrieved using a physic based model and also require several pre-processing steps such as atmospheric correction, water masking and glint removal process.
If you plan to use this application and have some doubts or want to share your problems or your results using it, you can write a comment on this topic, and ask for some feedback from the Co-ReSyF community.