The effectiveness of an Airborne Lidar Hydrographic (ALH) sensor, for bathymetric surveys of marine coastal waters, is limited by water turbidity. For valid data collection by ALH systems, water clarity must be above a pre-established threshold value or the survey will waste time and money. This work makes use of high spatial resolution, Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) imagery of the monthly averaged diffuse attenuation coefficient, or k(λ). This k(λ) imagery database is used, with known depth values from a prospective survey area, to identify the optimum month in which to conduct field operations in that area. Use of this optical database for actual ALH survey areas is described.
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