Ziyin Wu

A Post-Processing Method for the Removal of Refraction Artifacts in Multibeam Bathymetry Data

Sound refraction artifacts are often present in multibeam swath bathymetry data. For a flat array, the artifacts are usually more serious in outer beams than in inner beams. In a 3D topographical mapping they appear as ridges that parallel the tracks of the vessel. To shorten the survey time, the outer beams should be utilized as often as possible. Therefore, the refraction errors should be removed. In this paper, we present a model of reduced sound speed profile that consists of three water layers. The sound speed of the two upper layers has a constant gradient, and the third layer has the same sound speed as the most bottom measured layer. The model parameters can be searched based on the principle of the minimum difference of depth between the overlap of two neighboring swaths. The horizontal position and depth of each beam can be accordingly recalculated using the model parameters. To avoid being trapped in local optimum, the initial search scope is limited according to assumed lunch angle and travel time in each subregion. The method is verified by comparing the simulated and real data.

Impact of human activities on subaqueous topographic change in Lingding Bay of the Pearl River estuary, China, during 1955-2013.

Estuaries have been sites of intensive human activities during the past century. Tracing the evolution of subaqueous topography in estuaries on a decadal timescale enables us to understand the effects of human activities on estuaries. Bathymetric data from 1955 to 2010 show that land reclamation decreased the subaqueous area of Lingding Bay, in the Pearl River estuary, by ~170 km2 and decreased its water volume by 615 × 106 m3, representing a net decrease of 11.2 × 106 m3 per year and indicating the deposition of approximately 14.5 Mt/yr of sediment in Lingding Bay during that period. Whereas Lingding Bay was mainly governed by natural processes with slight net deposition before 1980, subsequent dredging and large port engineering projects changed the subaqueous topography of the bay by shallowing its shoals and deepening its troughs. Between 2012 and 2013, continuous dredging and a surge of sand excavation resulted in local changes in water depth of ± 5 m/yr, far exceeding the magnitude of natural topographic evolution in Lingding Bay. Reclamation, dredging, and navigation-channel projects removed 8.4 Mt/yr of sediment from Lingding Bay, representing 29% of the sediment input to the bay, and these activities have increased recently.

A New Method of Automatic SVP Optimization Based on MOV Algorithm

We applied the maximum offset of sound velocity algorithm to sound velocity profile streamlining and optimization to overcome multibeam survey and data-processing efficiency problems. The impact of sound velocity profile streamlining on sounding data accuracy is evaluated. By automatically optimizing the threshold, the reduction rate of sound velocity profile data can reach over 90% and the standard deviation percentage error of sounding data can be controlled to within 0.1%. The optimized sound velocity profile data improved the operational efficiency of the multi-beam survey and data postprocessing by 3.4 times, indicating that this algorithm has practical value for engineering applications.

Automatic Detecting Outliers in Multibeam Sonar Based on Density of Points

Because of device noises, bad sea state or incorrect ship parameter, multibeam bathymetry data easily conceal many outliers. In order to process such large amount of data, we must research an automatic and rapid and robust approach. We present an automatic algorithm for detecting outliers based on density of points. Firstly, each swath data are projected along orthogonal and side direction respectively. On each plane, an initial point can be determined according to the corresponding maximum density. Then a big region will be searched by the connected neighboring points on each plane. Then we adopt erosion and dilation algorithms to eliminate a few outliers which connected with the big region. Afterward we obtain the edge of region by edge tracing. All data beyond of the region will be considered as outliers and deleted. Finally a local window filter is used to delete some outliers which conceal in the scope of real depth. The algorithm is verified by real data. It is a kind of rapid, robust algorithm.

Underwater Target Detection and 3D Reconstruction System Based on Binocular Vision

To better solve the problem of target detection in marine environment and to deal with the difficulty of 3D reconstruction of underwater target, a binocular vision-based underwater target detection and 3D reconstruction system is proposed in this paper. Two optical sensors are used as the vision of the system. Firstly, denoising and color restoration are performed on the image sequence acquired by the vision of the system and the underwater target is segmented and extracted according to the image saliency using the super-pixel segmentation method. Secondly, aiming to reduce mismatch, we improve the semi-global stereo matching method by strictly constraining the matching in the valid target area and then optimizing the basic disparity map within each super-pixel area using the least squares fitting interpolation method. Finally, based on the optimized disparity map, triangulation principle is used to calculate the three-dimensional data of the target and the 3D structure and color information of the target can be given by MeshLab. The experimental results show that for a specific size underwater target, the system can achieve higher measurement accuracy and better 3D reconstruction effect within a suitable distance.

Comparison of two Bayesian-point-estimation methods in multiple-source localization

Environmental uncertainty represents the limiting factor in matched-field localization. Within a Bayesian framework, both the environmental parameters, and the source parameters are considered to be unknown variables. However, including environmental parameters in multiple-source localization greatly increases the complexity and computational demands of the inverse problem. In the paper, the closed-form maximumlikelihood expressions for source strengths and noise variance at each frequency allow these parameters to be sampled implicitly, substantially reducing the dimensionality and difficulty of the inversion. This paper compares two Bayesian-point-estimation methods: the maximum a posteriori (MAP) approach and the marginal posterior probability density (PPD) approach to source localization. The MAP approach determines the sources locations by maximizing the PPD over all source and environmental parameters. The marginal PPD approach integrates the PPD over the unknowns to obtain a sequence of marginal probability distribution over source range or depth. Monte Carlo analysis of the two approaches for a test case involving both geoacoustic and water-column uncertainties indicates that: (1) For sensitive parameters such as source range, water depth and water sound speed, the MAP solution is better than the marginal PPD solution. (2) For the less sensitive parameters, such as, bottom sound speed, bottom density, bottom attenuation and water sound speed, when the SNR is low, the marginal PPD solution can better smooth the noise, which leads to better performance than the MAP solution. Since the source range and depth are sensitive parameters, the research shows that the MAP approach provides a slightly more reliable method to locate multiple sources in an unknown environment.

A new method to identify the foot of continental slope based on an integrated profile analysis

A new method is proposed to identify automatically the foot of the continental slope (FOS) based on the integrated analysis of topographic profiles. Based on the extremum points of the second derivative and the Douglas–Peucker algorithm, it simplifies the topographic profiles, then calculates the second derivative of the original profiles and the D–P profiles. Seven steps are proposed to simplify the original profiles. Meanwhile, multiple identification methods are proposed to determine the FOS points, including gradient, water depth and second derivative values of data points, as well as the concave and convex, continuity and segmentation of the topographic profiles. This method can comprehensively and intelligently analyze the topographic profiles and their derived slopes, second derivatives and D–P profiles, based on which, it is capable to analyze the essential properties of every single data point in the profile. Furthermore, it is proposed to remove the concave points of the curve and in addition, to implement six FOS judgment criteria.

Turbidity maximum formation and its seasonal variations in the Zhujiang (Pearl River) Estuary, southern China

Real-time observations in the field and numerical simulations (with Delft3D) were combined to study the formation, distribution and the relevant influencing factors of turbidity maximum (TM) in the Zhujiang (Pearl River) Estuary (ZE). The spatial distribution pattern of the TM varies with the longitudinal distributions of salinity and suspended sediment concentration (SSC). The SSC is enhanced and the TM is intensified during dry seasons, whereas the center of the TM moves upstream by a distance of 10 km during wet seasons. The formation of the TM is influenced by a complex combination of numerous factors, including tides, river discharges and topography, wherein sediment resuspension and vertical circulation dominate the formations and variability of the TM.

Methods and procedures to determine the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles

This paper establishes techniques and methods to determine a variety of boundaries associated with 200 nautical miles beyond the continental shelf. The methods, based on topography, slope and second-derivative profile integrated analysis, are now able to identify automatically the foot of the continental slope (FOS). By analyzing the sedimentary profile, the points of 1% sediment thickness are recognized. Through the intersection, cut, deletion and mergence calculation of the extrapolated data set of fixed-point series, the method succeeds in generating automatically the extrapolated boundaries, including the FOS+60 M line, the 350 M line, and the 2 500 m+100 M line. In addition, based on the automatic analysis of the topographic profile, it can be applied to determine rapidly the points of maximum water depth. Taking the northern Okinawa Trough (OT) as an example, these methods are used to calculate and examine the boundaries included in the Submission by the People’s Republic of China Concerning the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 Nautical miles in Part of the East China Sea (ECS); the boundaries thus derived have a solid scientific and rational basis.