Nearshore Bathymetry From Fusion of Sentinel-2 and ICESat-2 Observations

Abstract

Nearshore estimates of bathymetry are crucial for understanding coastal processes. However, current passive remote sensing methods for estimating bathymetry require in situ depth measurements to train inversion models, which can be difficult or impossible to obtain in many areas. To address this issue, we investigated the fusion of range measurements from the advanced topographic laser altimeter system (ATLAS) aboard the NASA ICESat-2 satellite, and multispectral satellite imagery from European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 using two common bathymetric inversion algorithms. The active ranging capability of the ATLAS green (532-nm) laser has been shown to generate returns of up to 38-m depth in optically clear waters, providing depth measurements to constrain passive bathymetric inversion results. Data acquired in November 2018 over the nearshore in Destin, FL, USA, offer a proof of concept for this approach. The results of the bathymetric inversion were quantitatively assessed by comparison with airborne bathymetric LiDAR collected using the U.S. Army Corps Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging LiDAR (CZMIL) system in October-November 2018. Overall, the results of the bathymetric inversion compared with the CZMIL data have a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.35 m in waters with similar turbidity and bottom reflectivity, and demonstrate that a combination of ICESat-2 depth observations with Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery can estimate seamless nearshore bathymetry for optically clear coastal waters.