Sixth International Conference on
Remote Sensing for Marine and Coastal Environments
2000
Ron Abileah, SRI International
Paper Summary
Applications of multispectral imagery over bodies of water included:
detecting pollutant effluents, monitoring coral reefs, locating shipwrecks,
and tracking marine mammals. Often these subjects are obscured by sun glint
and light scattering from the water volume. SRI International developed an
algorithm to subtract this background clutter. The method works using
multispectral imagery, using spectral differences to distinguish the
interesting objects from the clutter. In ocean imagery at least three
spectral bands are recommended, and up to ten can be beneficial. The method
was first proven and applied to detection of underwater mines. In this paper
the authors explore applications to non-defense subjects. Imagery used in
this study was acquired with several different airborne multispectral
imaging systems, typically with 0.5 to 1 m ground resolution. In the near
future we hope to apply the technique to high resolution (1 m panchromatic,
4 m in multispectral) imagery that will be available from commercial
satellites (e.g., Ikonos). Early satellite results will be reported if
available in time for the conference.
