Merged GLORIA sidescan and Hydrosweep pseudo-sidescan: Processing and creation of digital mosaics

We have replaced the usual band of poor-quality data in the near-nadir region of our GLORIA long-range sidescan-sonar imagery with a shaded-relief image constructed from swath bathymetry data (collected simultaneously with GLORIA) which completely cover the nadir area. We have developed a technique to enhance these pseudo-sidescan images in order to mimic the neighbouring GLORIA backscatter intensities. As a result, the enhanced images greatly facilitate the geologic interpretation of the adjacent GLORIA data, and geologic features evident in the GLORIA data may be correlated with greater confidence across track. Features interpreted from the pseudo-sidescan may be extrapolated from the near-nadir region out into the GLORIA range where they may nt have been recognized otherwise, and therefore the pseudo-sidescan can be used to ground-truth GLORIA interpretations. Creation of digital sidescan mosaics utilized an approach not previously used for GLORIA data. Pixels were correctly placed in cartographic space and the time required to complete a final mosaic was significantly reduced. Computer software for digital mapping and mosaic creation is incorporated into the newly-developed Woods Hole Image Processing System (WHIPS) which can process both low- and high-frequency sidescan, and can interchange data with the Mini Image Processing System (MIPS) most commonly used for GLORIA processing. These techniques are tested by creating digital mosaics of merged GLORIA sidescan and Hydrosweep pseudo-sidescan data from the vicinity of the Juan Fernandez microplate along the East Pacific Rise (EPR).     

Digital preprocessing techniques for GLORIA II sonar images

Image processing techniques are discussed that correct distortions in GLORIA II side scan sonar imagery including water column offset, slant-range distortion, multiple returns, aspect ratio, speckle noise, striping, and cross-track power drop-off. The software operates within NASA's ELAS image processing system and is applied to the original 12-bit GLORIA II data. Procedures are discussed for generating large scale mosaics and three-dimensional overlays with sea floor bathymetry. The results are shown in four sonographs acquired off the southern coast of California.     

An evolving ridge system around the Indian Ocean triple junction

A 2°×2° map of spreading centres and fracture zones surrounding the Indian Ocean RRR triple junction, at 25.5°S, 70°E, is described from a data set of GLORIA side-scan sonar images, bathymetry, magnetic and gravity anomalies. The GLORIA images show a pervasive fabric due to linear abyssal hills oriented parallel to the two medium-spreading ridges (the Central Indian Ridge (CIR) and Southeast Indian Ridge (SEIR)). A cuvature of the fabric occurs along fracture zones, which are also located by lows in the bathymetry and gravity data and by offsets between magnetic anomalies. The magnetic anomalies also record periods of asymmetric spreading marking the development of the fracture zones, including the birth, at anomaly 2A, of a short fracture zone 50 km north of the triple junction on the CIR, and its death near the time of the Jaramillo anomaly. In some localities, a fine-scale fabric corresponds to a coarser fabric on the opposite flank of the CIR, possibly indicating a persistent asymmetry in the faulting at the median valley walls if the fabric has a tectonic and not a volcanic origin. A plate velocity analysis of the triple junction shows that both the CIR and Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) are propagating obliquely; the CIR appears to form an oblique trend by segmenting into a series of almost normally-oriented segments separated by short-offset fracture zones. For the last 4 m.y., the abyssal hill lineations indicate that the CIR segment immediately north of the triple junction has been spreading with an average 10° obliquity. The present small 5 km offset of the centres of the CIR and SEIR median valleys (Munschy and Schlich, 1989) is shown to be the result of this obliquity and a 30% spreading asymmetry between anomaly 2 and the Jaramillo on the CIR segment immediately north of the triple junction.     

基于非锐化掩模引导滤波的水下图像细节增强算法研究

针对水下图像对比度偏低,细节模糊的问题,本文提出基于非锐化掩模引导滤波的细节增强方法。首先由原始图像做引导图进行滤波得到细节层图像,并对细节层使用噪声检测的中值滤波去除斑点噪声;然后对原始图像进行基于均值滤波的非锐化掩模,得到锐化图像,并将锐化图像作为引导图对原始图像进行引导滤波,获取基础层图像;最后将滤波后的细节层进行增益后与引导滤波获取的基础层进行叠加,达到增强水下图像细节的目的。并通过信息熵、局部对比度和平均梯度3种客观评价指标对图像处理结果进行了对比分析,主观和客观测试结果表明,本文采用的算法能够有效提高图像对比度以及增强细节信息,有利于提高水下图像资料解释的准确性。     

Deblurring of GLORIA side-scan sonar images

In side-scan sonars such as GLORIA, along-track resolution is usually much worse than across-track resolution. This paper shows how along-track resolution may be improved by the application of an image restoration (deblurring) technique known as the Jansson-van Cittert method. Employing a model of the image formation process, this involves iterated convolution of the estimated deblurred image radiances with the theoretical alongtrack point spread function. The method and its implementation for GLORIA images are described. Smoothing of high frequency noise prior to restoration has been found to lead to an improved end-product. The restored images exhibit sharper edges and a greater clarity much appreciated by the interpreter. This visual impression is borne out by quantitative measurement. The technique is shown to be a useful adjunct to the battery of digital preprocessing techniques which can be applied to the sonar image prior to the information extraction stage.     

遥感图像薄云滤波增强

针对遥感图像地学应用中的云层覆盖问题,首先介绍了遥感图像去云处理的一般方法,然后重点研究了薄云覆盖图像的滤波增强技术和实现方法。在阐述传统的同态滤波算法的基础上,将高频增强滤波算法引入薄云区遥感图像增强处理中。试验表明,这两种方法均可取得良好的增强效果。     

Side-scan sonar mapping and computer-aided interpretation in the Santa Barbara Channel,California

We have experimented with digital processing of side scan sonar data taken in a 14 sq-km area of continental shelf offshore Southern California. The data were FM tape recorded during the survey and digitized and processed later in the laboratory. The digital image processing included both image correction and image enhancement. Geometric corrections were applied to correct for image distortions due to variable ship position and speed and sonar slant range. Enhancements that were tried included contrast stretching, band-pass filtering, image restoration (inverse filtering), and various edge enhancements such as density slicing and standard deviation filters. Interpretive procedures were also attempted and included digital mosaicking, stereoscopic viewing, and falsecolor display. The most effective processing was geometric correction combined with contrast stretching. Mosaicking proved difficult due to imprecise navigation (±50 m), but was very effective in increasing the understanding of the geologic structure in the survey area.     

Northern Lau Basin: Backarc extension at the leading edge of the Indo-Australian Plate

GLORIA imagery of the Lau Basin north of 17°S shows several morphotectonic terrains: a basement ridge and sedimented inter-ridge area in the SE; a nascent triple junction in the NE; a deeply sedimented basinal terrain in the central area; a linear neovolcanic zone striking NNESSW in the NW; and the northern flank of a leaky transform, the Peggy Ridge. Extension is now being accommodated at two main areas of spreading, but as no site of persistent long-term backarc crustal accretion is evident in this 250-km-wide portion of the basin, we conclude that past extension was largely by formation of pull-apart basins and local magmatism.     

基于复contourlet域隐马尔科夫树模型的海面溢油合成孔径雷达图像相干斑抑制

海面溢油SAR图像中的相干斑噪声严重影响了后续的图像分割、特征提取和分类.为了更有效地抑制海面溢油SAR图像相干斑,文中提出了一种基于复contourlet域隐马尔科夫树模型的海面溢油SAR图像相干斑抑制方法.首先对观测图像取对数并进行复contourlet变换;然后在复contourlet域中用隐马尔科夫树模型对相邻尺度间的带通方向子带系数进行建模,并依据贝叶斯最小均方误差准则估计无噪系数;最后进行逆复contourlet变换和指数变换,得到相干斑抑制后的图像.大量实验结果表明,与Lee、Kuan、Frost及Gamma Map等4种经典滤波方法以及小波域和contourlet域隐马尔科夫树模型方法相比,文中方法从主观视觉和客观定量评价两方面来看综合性能更为优越,是一种行之有效的SAR遥感图像海面溢油检测的预处理方法.     

GLORIA image processing: The state of the art

This chapter presents a summary of the image-processing techniques being used at present in the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Deacon Laboratory's GLORIA long-range sidescan sonar system. It begins with a brief review of the development of GLORIA, and then describes in outline the present shipboard data acquisition, recording and replay system, including simple image-processing techniques that can be used on-board ship. Next, a detailed form of the sonar equation is developed, and this is evaluated factor-by-factor, to demonstrate the effects of beam directivity, refraction and water depth on the form of intensity variation to be expected in the final image. Finally, we discuss recent developments in shore-based image-processing. These include the development of improved radiometric corrections to normalize range-dependent intensity variations, recovery of true backscattering levels and estimation of backscattering coefficients, and combination of GLORIA with other data sets into single, colour digital images. As an example of the last process we show a digital mosaic of sonar data from the Southwest Indian Ridge, coloured as a function of depth derived from Sea Beam data in the same area.     

基于纹理特征的围填海SAR图像分水岭分割方法

本文提出了一种基于纹理特征的围填海SAR图像分水岭分割方法,首先对机载MiniSAR图像进行灰度共生矩阵纹理滤波,获得纹理特征图像,再对纹理特征图像进行分水岭算法分割,将获得的形态学重建图像进行门限阈值分割,得到最后的二值化分割结果。该方法一方面通过调整灰度共生矩阵纹理滤波的窗口大小,抑制了斑点噪声的影响;另一方面,利用分水岭算法对边缘模糊杂乱图像的优势,提高了围填海信息提取的准确性。实验结果表明,本方法对高分辨率SAR图像围填海监测图像的分割效果良好。     

Interference fringes on GLORIA side-scan sonar images from the Bering Sea and their implications

GLORIA side-scan sonographs from the Bering Sea Basin show a complex pattern of interference fringes sub-parallel to the ship's track. Surveys along the same trackline made in 1986 and 1987 show nearly identical patterns. It is concluded from this that the interference patterns are caused by features in the shallow subsurface rather than in the water column. The fringes are interpreted as a thin-layer interference effect that occurs when some of the sound reaching the seafloor passes through it and is reflected off a subsurface layer. The backscattered sound interferes (constructively or desctructively) with the reflected sound. Constructive/destructive interference occurs when the difference in the length of the two soundpaths is a whole/half multiple of GLORIA's 25 cm wavelength. Thus as range from the ship increases, sound moves in and out of phase causing bands of greater and lesser intensity on the GLORIA sonograph. Fluctuations (or wiggles) of the fringes on the GLORIA sonographs relate to changes in layer thickness. In principle, a simple three dimensional image of the subsurface layer may be obtained using GLORIA and bathymetric data from adjacent (parallel) ship's tracks. These patterns have also been identified in images from two other systems; SeaMARC II (12 kHz) long-range sonar, and TOBI (30 kHz) deep-towed sonar. In these, and other cases world-wide, the fringes do not appear with the same persistence as those seen in the Bering Sea.     

Geology,sediment patterns,and widespread deformation on the sea floor off Western Samoa revealed by wide-swath imagery

GLORIA and SeaMARC II sea-floor images of offshore Western Samoa reveal large-scale mass movements, volcanism, and structural modification. These processes are driven by hot-spot mantle diapirism and nearby plate subduction. Debris avalanche deposits extend from the island slope onto the adjacent abyssal plains, covering at least 20,000 km². Sediment flows occur in sheets up to 30 km wide; slump structures are common on steep slopes. Volcanic cones and lava sheets are evident on lower slopes and abyssal plains. Major volcanic rift zones on the island of Savaii continue offshore. Subduction-induced flexure has produced intense tensional fracturing on the outer wall of the Tonga Trench.     

AMSR-E sea surface temperature (SST) charts enhancement

Microwave satellite images used for retrieving sea surface temperatures often have such distortions as noise and blurring of the thermal fronts. An image processing approach based on the Mumford-Shah model of optimal image approximation is considered for the solution to this problem. We divide images into flat areas and frontal zones, and then process these areas separately. Image fragmentation is based on automatic detection of the thermal front lines. SST enhancement in frontal zones is achieved by using image deconvolution methods. It has been shown that SST errors in high gradient areas reach 1–3 °C. The proposed approach can decrease this discrepancy.     

Coastline Extraction from SAR Images Using Robust Ridge Tracing

Although ridge tracing has the advantages of continuity and high positioning accuracy compared with other edge-based methods, it is difficult to use ridge tracing to extract coastlines from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images because of the speckle noise that occurs in SAR images. This paper presents a new coastline extraction method for SAR images based on a more robust ridge tracing method. First, according to the statistical properties of the pixel intensities in the land and sea regions in a SAR image, an edge magnitude map that characterizes the boundary between them is produced by the ratio of the variance to the mean such that the magnitude at the land-sea boundary is much higher than that at other locations. Second, the pixel with the maximum magnitude in the map is adopted as the starting point for tracing, and strip windows, which reduce tracing failures, are adopted to obtain different average magnitudes corresponding to the eight neighborhood pixels around the starting point. Then, the neighborhood pixel with the maximum magnitude is adopted as the next tracing point. The above procedure is repeated to determine the direction of the next point. This process achieves part of the tracing operation. The complete coastline is then extracted by performing the other part of the tracing operation. The experimental results show that the proposed method is more robust than traditional methods, and we demonstrate its effectiveness with RADARSAT-2 and Sentinel-1A data.     

GLORIA imagery of sea floor structures in the northern North Fiji Basin

GLORIA side-scan imagery from the northern North Fiji Basin reveals modern and relict sea-floor fabric. The South Pandora Ridge is marked by steep escarpments and small rift basins, but no recent volcanism. The northern and eastern limbs of the 16°58S, 173°55E triple junction are marked by rift grabens flanked by steep escarpments, but little recent volcanism is apparent there. At present, there is no well-organized spreading system in the northern North Fiji Basin; extension and shearing are occurring within narrowly confined areas. It is uncertain how these areas relate to one another and fit into the regional tectonic framework.     

Speculations on the geological causes of backscatter variation on GLORIA sonographs from the Mississippi and De Soto fans,Gulf of Mexico

Published analyses of 61 piston cores, bottom photographs, and dredge samples provide ground truth for 6.5 kHz GLORIA side-scan sonar records of the Mississippi and De Soto fans. GLORIA sound appears to have penetrated through up to 4 m of foraminiferal ooze and terrigenous mud to reach sandy sediments. Possible primary geological causes of high backscatter include slump structures at various scales (1->1,000 cm), possible debris flow fabrics (roughness 1–100 cm) in sandy (5–21%) sediments, and thin ironstone crusts with a roughness of tens of centimeters.     

Fault scarp identification in side-scan sonar and bathymetry images from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge using wavelet-based digital filters

Digital filters designed using wavelet theory are applied to high resolution deep-towed side-scan sonar data from the median valley walls, crestal mountains, and flanks of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 29°10 N. With proper tuning, the digital filters are able to identify the location, orientation, length, and width of highly reflective linear features in sonar images. These features are presumed to represent the acoustic backscatter from axis-facing normal faults. The fault locations obtained from the digital filters are well correlated with visual geologic interpretation of the images. The side-scan sonar images are also compared with swath bathymetry from the same area. The digitally filtered bathymetry images contain nine of the eleven faults identified by eye in the detailed geologic interpretation of the side-scan data. Faults with widths (measured perpendicular to their strike) of less than about 150 m are missed in the bathymetry analysis due to the coarser resolution of these data. This digital image processing technique demonstrates the potential of wavelet-based analysis to reduce subjectivity and labor involved in mapping and analyzing topographic features in side-scan sonar and bathymetric image data.     

基于序列非线性滤波SAR影像水体自动提取

由于合成孔径雷达（SAR）图像中固有斑点噪声的强烈影响,某些对于光学图像有很好效果的目标提取区域分割方法,但是对于SAR图像来说,效果不很好,针对水体目标的亮度及形状分布特征,不作阈值分割处理,而采用序列非线性滤波处理方法,可以快速有效地实现SAR影像水体目标的自动提取识别。     

Morphology and tectonics of the Galapagos Triple Junction

We describe the results of GLORIA and SEABEAM surveys, supplemented by other marine geophysical data, of the Galapagos Triple Junction where the Pacific, Cocos and Nazca plates meet. The data allowed detailed topographic and tectonic maps of the area to be produced. We located each spreading axis with a precision of about 1 km. All three plate boundaries change character as the triple junction is approached to take on morphologies typical of slower spreading axes: the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise develops the morphology of a medium-spreading rise, and the medium-spreading Cocos-Nazca Rise takes on the appearance of a slow-spreading ridge. The axis of the East Pacific Rise was found to be completely continuous throughout the survey area, where it runs along the 102°05 W meridian. The Cocos-Nazca axis, however, fails to meet it, leaving a 20-km-wide band of apparently normal East Pacific Rise crust between its tip and the East Pacific Rise axis. As a consequence there must be considerable intra-plate deformation within the Cocos and Nazca plates. A further 40 km of the Cocos-Nazca axis is characterised by oblique faulting that we interpret to be a sign of rifting of pre-existing East Pacific Rise crust. We infer that true sea-floor spreading on the Cocos-Nazca axis does not begin until 60 km east of the East Pacific Rise axis. Other areas of similar oblique faulting occur on the Pacific plate west of the triple junction and along the rough-smooth boundaries of the Galapagos Gore. We present a model involving intermittent rifting, rift propagation, and sea-floor spreading, to explain these observations.