Efficient waveform decomposition on airborne laser bathymetry

A technique for the efficient processing of bathymetric data is presented. First, the characteristics of bathymetric signals are analyzed in the time domain. A bathymetric signal is characterized by three components that represent the blue-green surface reflection, volume backscatter, and bottom reflection. This characterization facilitates the decomposition of the waveform and renders the depth estimation reliable and physically meaningful. Recursive computational schemes for the evaluation of the signal model are derived. The simulations have demonstrated that these schemes can be used in optimization-based depth estimation algorithms with reduced computation complexity