Novel Method for Interpreting Submarine Geomorphology from Laser Airborne Depth Sounding (LADS) Bathymetry using Surfer®12 Shaded Relief Maps

Abstract

ABSTRACT Vollmer, H.M.; Finkl, C.W., and Makowski, C., 2015. Novel method for interpreting submarine geomorphology from LADS bathymetry using Surfer® 12 shaded relief maps. Laser Airborne Depth Sounding (LADS) produces high-resolution x, y, z surface data of seafloor topography that permits interpretation of geomorphological features, benthic environments, and habitats, as well as recognition of cultural features and submarine engineering structures. Because the quality of the resulting surface data depends on the type of processing software, it is worthwhile to consider potential improvements of previous bathymetric imagery displays generated from LADS data. A novel method for formatting, gridding, and exporting LADS data into Surfer® 12 software is shown to produce enhanced quality surfaces that facilitate shaded relief map analysis. This new Surfer 12 shaded relief map creation procedure intensifies the interpretation of submarine geomorphology from LADS bathymetry images in a GIS platform environment.