An Approach for Horizon Extraction in Ocean Observation

A horizon extraction method in ocean observation is proposed. Extracting the horizon correctly from the sea images automatically is a challenge task in ocean environment due to the change of lighting or other diversified conditions. The approach converts a color image to a gray scale image with a fusion scheme of nine color channels, and the conversion is insensitive to the variation of light. The weight of each color channel is computed with an optimization method, which will enlarge the difference between the gray value of sky and sea. At last, the horizon is extracted from the intersection line between the sky and sea in the gray image. Image experiments and real application have validated the method.