Analysis of the effect ofwave patterns on refraction in airborne lidar bathymetry

Abstract

This contribution investigates the effects of wave patterns on 3D point coordinate accuracy in LiDAR bathymetry. The finite diameter refracted laser pulse path passing the air/water interface is modelled differentially and in a strict manner. Typical wave patterns are simulated and their impact on the 3D coordinates at the bottom of the water body are analysed. It can be shown that the effects of waves within small LiDAR bathymetry footprints on the depth and planimetry coordinates is significant. Planimetric effects may reach several decimetres or even metres, and depth coordinate errors also reach several decimetres, even in case of horizontal water body bottom. The simplified assumption of averaging wave effects often made in many ALB applications is not only fulfilled in cases of a very large beam divergence under certain wave pattern conditions. Modern smaller beam divergence systems will mostly experience significant wave pattern dependent coordinate errors. The results presented here thus form a basis for a more strict coordinate correction if the wave pattern can be modelled from the LiDAR bathymetry water surface reflections or other observations. Moreover, it will be shown that the induced coordinate errors contain systematic parts in addition to the local wave surface dependent quasi-random part, which allows for the formulation of wave pattern type dependent correction terms.