A Spaceborne SAR Technique for Shallow Water Bathymetry Surveys

A numerical model for shallow water bathymetric surveys by spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and its calculation procedure have been developed based on the SAR imaging mechanism of sea floor topography. Water depths of the Xiaoyinsha sandwave off the east coast of Jingsu and the Taiwan Shoal have been calculated from the ERS-1 SAR imagery. The results have been compared with the published hydrographic chart. It is shown that the agreement between the image-calculated bathymetric pattern and the chart is excellent. A root mean square difference (rmsd) accuracy of 0.42 m has been achieved for application over the Xiaoyinsha sandwave.