Three-Dimensional Geomorphometric Modeling of the Arctic Ocean Submarine Topography: A Low-Resolution Desktop Application

Abstract

Submarine topography is one of the key factors determining the course and direction of processes at the lithosphere–hydrosphere boundary. In this article, we present results of the first phase of a project to create a system for 3-D geomorphometric modeling of the Arctic Ocean floor. In this phase, a low-resolution desktop version of the system was developed. We utilized a small 5-km gridded digital elevation model extracted from the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean version 3.0. First, we smoothed the digital elevation model to suppress high-frequency noise. From the smoothed digital elevation model, we derived digital models of the following morphometric variables: horizontal, vertical, minimal, and maximal curvatures, catchment, and dispersive areas, as well as topographic and stream power indices. Then, to construct and visualize 3-D morphometric models of the territory, we applied an original approach for 3-D terrain modeling in the environment of Blender, free and open-source software. Finally, we present a series of the 3-D morphometric models (perspective views from the Atlantic, Eurasia, and North America). The experiment showed that the approach is efficient and can be applied for creating next desktop and web versions of the system for visualizing 3-D morphometric models of higher resolutions. The final versions of the system will be used to support marine geomorphological, geological, and biological studies of the Arctic Ocean.