A Numerical Technique to Estimate Water Depths from Remotely Sensed Water Wave Characteristics

Abstract

This paper describes a numerical technique to estimate water depths from remotely sensed water wave characteristics. Two depth inversion models have been developed based on both linear and nonlinear dispersion relations. A simplified technique to get wave height distribution from remotely sensed water surface elevations is presented. Synthetic input data are generated using a refraction-diffraction numerical model. In intermediate water depths, there is good agreement between actual and estimated depths (relative errors are of order 10%). It is shown that depth inversion using linear dispersion relation overestimates water depth near shoreline. The nonlinear model is seen to improve the inverted depth by 10% and could retrieve two-dimensional depth profile.