Abstract Seeps of free methane gas escaping the seabed can be found throughout ocean basins. To understand role seeps in global carbon cycle—including both added to atmosphere and that which is dissolved potentially oxidized volume—it important quantify amount seabed. Few large‐scale mapping projects natural have been undertaken, however, even among these, quantitative estimates flux are rare. Here we use acoustic techniques survey 357 a large region (6000 km 2 ) northern Gulf Mexico outline...

In this work, multibeam echosounder (MBES) and dual frequency sidescan sonar (SSS) data are combined to map the shallow (5–100 m) benthic habitats of National Marine Park Zakynthos (NMPZ), Greece, a Protected Area (MPA). NMPZ hosts extensive prairies protected Mediterranean phanerogams Posidonia oceanica Cymodocea nodosa, as well reefs sandbanks. Seafloor characterization is achieved using multi-frequency acoustic backscatter of: (a) two simultaneous frequencies SSS (100 400 kHz) (b) MBES...

The spatial structure of local uncertainty shallow-water satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) relative to model type, imagery, and geographical adaptability was examined for an area near Key West, Florida (United States). types were a commonly used quasi-empirical linear regression decision tree-based Categorical Boosting (CatBoost) machine learning (ML) model. Image (four) cloud-free Sentinel-2 images maximum blue band (Band 2) value image composite the four images. Initial models fitted...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geodetic Survey (NGS) is mandated to map the national shoreline, which depicted on NOAA nautical charts, serves as an important source in determining territorial limits, widely used various coastal science management applications. Survey's primary method of mapping shoreline through stereo compilation from tide-coordinated aerial photography. However, over past decade, NGS has conducted several phases research develop, test, refine...

This paper presents a proof-of-concept optical detector array sensor system to be used in Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) navigation. The performance of the developed was evaluated for its capability estimate position, orientation and forward velocity UUVs with respect light source fixed underwater. evaluations were conducted through Monte Carlo simulations empirical tests under variety motion configurations. also total propagated uncertainty (TPU) by taking into account variations water...

A GO-PRO underwater stereo camera kit has been used to measure the 3D topography (bathymetry) of a patch seafloor producing point cloud with spatial data density 15 measurements per 3 mm grid square and an standard deviation less than 1 cm is fixed focus, 11 megapixel, still-frame (or 1080p high-definition video) camera, whose small form-factor water-proof housing made it popular sports enthusiasts. available providing waterproof (to 61 m / 200 ft) for pair cameras. Measures micro-bathymetry...

This paper presents improved techniques and applications in mosaicing of underwater video images. The are use to many marine scientists. High resolution seabed maps created. improvements the processing relate removal interframe variability lighting, speed up process accuracy estimation transformation parameters. Results presented for real data acquired under a variety circumstances scenes.

Abstract Landscape patterns created by the structure and form of foundational species shape ecological processes community assembly trophic interactions. In recent years, major shifts in foundation have occurred multiple ecosystems. temperate marine systems, many kelp beds shifted to turf macroalgae habitats with unknown consequences on seascape or changes that maintain communities. We investigated effect three dominated those mixed composition. also examined decadal elevations temperature...

Knowledge of spectral sensitivity is important for high-precision comparison images taken by different cameras and recognition objects interpretation scenes which color an cue. Direct estimation quantum efficiency curves (QECs) a complicated tedious process requiring specialized equipment, many camera manufacturers do not make characteristics publicly available. This has led to the development indirect techniques that are unreliable due being highly sensitive noise in input data, often...

Tidally-referenced shoreline data serve a multitude of purposes, ranging from nautical charting, to coastal change analysis, wetland migration studies, planning, resource management and emergency management. To assess the suitability for particular application, end users require reliable estimates uncertainty in position. Previous studies on modeling mapping remote sensing have focused airborne light detection ranging; date, these methods not been extended aerial imagery photogrammetric...

Designs for an optical sensor detector array use in autonomous control of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), or between UUVs and docking station, are studied this paper. Here, various arrays designed the purpose determining distinguishing relative 5 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) motion UUVs: 3-DOF translation 2-DOF rotation (pitch yaw). In paper, a numerically based simulator is developed to evaluate varying designs. The includes single light source as guiding beacon variety UUV types. output...

Seafloor imagery is an important tool for scientists engaged in quantifying geological and biological processes operating on the deep-ocean floor. Large-scale mosaics of seafloor have significant advantages over individual still photographs video footage as they are able to capture large areas while retaining sufficient resolution identify small-scale features. However, process constructing a mosaic usually limited single panorama or transects from imagery, often requires manual control by...

Benthic quadrat surveys using 2-D images are one of the most common methods quantifying composition coral reef communities, but they and other fail to assess changes in species as a 3-dimensional system, arguably important attributes foundational systems. Structure-from-motion (SfM) algorithms that utilize collected from various viewpoints form an accurate 3-D model have become more among ecologists recent years. However, there exist few efficient can classify portions specific ecological...

Typical problems for creation of consistent underwater mosaic are misalignment and inhomogeneous illumination the image frames, which causes visible seams consequently complicates post-processing mosaics such as object recognition shape extraction. Two recently developed blending methods were explored in literature: "gradient domain stitching" "graph-cut" method, they allow improvement inconsistency "ghosting" effects, respectively. However, due to specifics imagery, these two cannot be used...

Benthic quadrat studies requiring time-intensive manual image annotation are currently a critical component of assessing the health coral reefs. Patch-based classification using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can automate this task by providing sparse labels, but remain computationally inefficient. This work extends idea automatic fully (FCNs) to provide dense labels through semantic segmentation. We present an improved version Multilevel Superpixel Segmentation (MSS) algorithm, which...

High-resolution seafloor mapping often requires optical methods of sensing, to confirm interpretations made from sonar data. Optical digital imagery sites can now provide very high resolution and also provides additional cues, such as color information for sediments, biota divers rock types. During the cruise AT11-7 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) vessel R/V Atlantis (February 2004, East Pacific Rise) visual was acquired three sources: (1) a still down-looking camera mounted on...

Airborne Lidar Bathymetry (ALB) waveforms provide a time log for the interaction of laser pulse with environment (water surface, water column and seafloor) along its ray-path geometry. Using surface return bottom return, it is possible to calculate depth. In addition bathymetry, ALB can information on seafloor characteristics. The main environmental factors that contribute measurements are: slope, roughness, vegetation, mineral composition geology. Both hardware affect measurement...