Refraction Correction of Airborne LiDAR Bathymetry Based on Sea Surface Profile and Ray Tracing

Abstract

Water depth can be measured using airborne LiDAR bathymetry (ALB). However, when the green laser beam passes through the air–water interface, the sea surface slope greatly affects the laser propagation path, significantly influencing the accuracy of the measured seafloor topography. To reduce its influence, a refraction correction method at the air–water interface based on the sea surface profile and ray tracing is proposed. First, the 3-D sea surface profile is fit based on the least-squares criteria and the wave spectrum, using the laser point data reflected by the sea surface. Then, on the basis of the sea surface slope, the geolocation biases of the laser points are corrected by tracing every laser transmission path at the air–water interface. The developed method is used to correct the ALB data collected in the South China Sea, and verified by the topography data captured by a ship-borne multibeam echo sounder. Before the refraction correction, the mean absolute error (MAE) is 14.2 cm, and the root-mean-square error (RMSE) is 17.5 cm. After the refraction correction, the MAE and RMSE decrease to 7.2 and 8.3 cm, respectively. The developed method can effectively improve the bathymetric accuracy of the ALB data.