Monte Carlo Simulations of the Effects of Underwater Propagation on the Penetration and Depth Measurement Bias of an Airborne Laser Bathymeter

摘要

This report documents the results of a Monte Carlo simulation of underwater light pulse propagation for a geometry applicable to airborne lidar. Actual lidar bottom return pulses will vary considerably in shape and arrival time depending on the water depth, the scanner nadir angle, the incident laser pulse width, the optical properties of the water, the airborne system signal processing electronics, and the depth determining algorithm or procedure. These perturbations of the return signals will cause depth measurement biases which can be considerably larger than the International Hydrographic Bureau shallow water accuracy requirement. The first step in the estimation of these bias errors is the determination of the impulse response functions of the medium for various permutations of the relevant optical parameters. An output data set consisting of 640 impulse response functions has been generated which provides the basic results of this phase of the investigation.