Dissolved organic matters impact on colour reconstruction in underwater images

Abstract

The natural properties of water column usually affect underwater imagery by suppressing high-energy light. In application such as color correction of underwater images estimation of water column parameters is crucial. Diffuse attenuation coefficients are estimated and used for further processing of underwater taken data. The coefficients will give information on how fast light of different wavelengths decreases with increasing depth. Based on the exact depth measurements and data from a spectrometer the calculation of downwelling irradiance will be done. Chlorophyll concentration and a yellow substance factor contribute to a great variety of values of attenuation coefficients at different depth. By taking advantage of variations in depth, a method is presented to estimate the influence of dissolved organic matters and chlorophyll on color correction. Attenuation coefficients that depends on concentration of dissolved organic matters in water gives an indication on how well any spectral band is suited for color correction algorithm. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.