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Underwater topography detection of Taiwan Shoal with SAR images

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Abstract

Under suitable conditions of tidal current and wind, underwater topography can be detected by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) indirectly. Underwater topography SAR imaging includes three physical processes: radar ocean surface backscattering, the modulation of sea surface short wave spectrum by the variations in sea surface currents, and the modulation of sea surface currents by the underwater topography. The first process is described usually by Bragg scattering theory because the incident angle of SAR is always between 20°–70°. The second process is described by the action balance equation. The third process is described by an ocean hydrodynamic model. Based on the SAR imaging mechanism for underwater topography, an underwater topography SAR detection model and a simplified method for its calculation are introduced. In the detection model, a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model — the shallow water model is used to describe the motion of tidal current. Due to the difficulty of determining the expression of SAR backscattering cross section in which some terms can not be determined, the backscattering cross section of SAR image used in the underwater topography SAR detection is pro-processed by the simulated SAR image of the coarse-grid water depth to simplify the calculation. Taiwan Shoal, located at the southwest outlet of Taiwan Strait, is selected as an evaluation area for this technique due to the occurrence of hundreds of sand waves. The underwater topography of Taiwan Shoal was detected by two scenes of ERS-2 SAR images which were acquired on 9 January 2000 and 6 June 2004. The detection results are compared with in situ measured water depths for three profiles. The average absolute and relative errors of the best detection result are 2.23 m and 7.5 %, respectively. These show that the detection model and the simplified method introduced in the paper is feasible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration (SOA), Qingdao, 266061, China

    Jungang Yang  (杨俊钢), Jie Zhang  (张杰) & Junmin Meng  (孟俊敏)

  2. Key Laboratory of Marine Science and Numerical Modeling (MASNUM), State Oceanic Administration (SOA), Qingdao, 266061, China

    Jie Zhang  (张杰)

Authors
  1. Jungang Yang  (杨俊钢)
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  2. Jie Zhang  (张杰)
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  3. Junmin Meng  (孟俊敏)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jungang Yang  (杨俊钢).

Additional information

Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 60672159 & 60890075), the State Oceanic Administration Marine Science Foundation for Youths (No.2009421), the Special Funds for Marine Commonweal Research (No. 200705027) and the Special Funds for Basic Scientific Research Project of the First Institute of Oceanography, S.O.A (No. 2008T29).

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Yang, J., Zhang, J. & Meng, J. Underwater topography detection of Taiwan Shoal with SAR images. Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol. 28, 636–642 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-010-9070-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-010-9070-x

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