Water wave glint corrections, water depth, light attenuation, and WorldView-3 remote sensing algorithms for Indian River lagoon

A water wave glint correction algorithm, light attenuation depths and water depths estimated from satellite imagery in the Indian River Lagoon and Banana River estuarine waters provide a means to evaluate light penetration or water clarity. The shallow water estuarine study area is along Florida’s east coast area known as "space coast” Florida. In-situ data, including water depths obtained from bathymetric charts, in-situ hyperspectral attenuation signatures and satellite- based reflectance factors are obtained from atmospherically corrected visible and near infra-red channels of World View-3 satellite imagery. The high spatial, radiometric and 11bit digital resolution satellite imagery is used to study water visibility that is an important ecosystem quality indicator. In shallow coastal waters as well as deeper water areas and nearby coastal waterways, the effects of water surface gravity wave facets and sun glint influence the estimates of water quality related variables estimated at the pixel level. The results have significant implications related to the estimation of the depth of penetration of light using satellite-based methods in coastal waters. Application of atmospherically corrected satellite imagery followed by glint removal is shown using translating and dilating derivative wavelet algorithms to estimate the attenuation depth of light in water. The research has been conducted in order that results may be transferable to other estuaries that suffer from reduction in light penetration due to factors such as turbidity or harmful algal blooms.