Mapping bathymetry
​from space

The COOL Lab has teamed up with scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to explore how the scientific community can use ICESat-2, a new lidar satellite launched in 2018, to measure the characteristics of complex coastal features from space. ICESat-2 carries a specialized photon counting lidar, the advanced topographic laser altimeter system (ATLAS), which is composed of three pairs of laser beams. A unique feature of this lidar instrument is its green color which allows the photon to pass through water and not be absorbed by it like many other near-infrared based lidar systems. Because of this penetration through the water we are able to accurately measure water depth in clear water areas up to about 30 meters (~100 feet).

Our project team is developing the software tools to automatically process the lidar data and integrate it with multispectral based sensors onboard Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellite platforms.  This combination of observations, lidar and multispectral, can generate wall-to-wall estimates of water depth without the need for sonar (or fish-finder) instruments and boat time. By doing this, and freely providing the data products, software, and tutorials, communities can start to take control of their own coastal seascapes. Taking this one step further, we are also exploring how this information can help differentiate benthic (seafloor) habitats like coral reefs, seagrasses, and sands. 

Integrated Coastal Studies PhD Student Shalimar Moreno is supported by this project and is exploring how datasets like these generated from ICESat-2 can be useful in marine protected area management and coastal conservation. 

You can read more about our methods in our publications: