Inversion Technique for Optical Remote Sensing in Shallow Water

Abstract

A new inversion procedure for shallow water applications was developed based on analytical equations using the method of nonlinear curve fitting and included in a public-domain software (WASI) to provide a fast and user-friendly tool of forward and inverse modeling. The iteration starts using an automatical determination of the initial values of the fit parameters. The bottom depth and suspended matter concentration are estimated analytically. Phytoplankton concentration and gelbstoff absorption are initially calculated by the method of nested intervals. A sensivity analysis was made to estimate the accuracy of the entire inversion procedure including model error, error propagation, and influence of instrument characteristics like noise, radiometric, and spectral resolution.