Generation of bathymetric maps with high resolution through the analysis of nautical X-band radar images

This work deals with the analysis of a novel data processing approach to estimate the local depth in a shallow coastal area starting from X-band radar data. The approach is based on the maximization of the Normalized Scalar Product (NSP) between the measured and the theoretical wave dispersion relations, which embed the dependence on the searched for parameters (current vector and depth). In the present work, we presented an improvement version of NSP approach able to estimate the local depth, which allows to obtain a high resolution spatial map (subpixel) of the investigated area. The performances of the NSP approach is evaluated by comparing the estimated bathymetry with the ground truth provided the multi-beam echo sounder reported on the same grid resolution of the bathymetric maps of the X-band radar images. © 2013 IEEE.