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Satellite Derived Bathymetry in Arctic waters – successfully validated and ready to be used!

The Arctic is a huge and remote place where physical conditions are extremely challenging. This has always affected field campaigns in terms of health and safety issues and with huge associated costs. Consequently, there is still a big lack of detailed up-to-date maps of the arctic coastal zone which significantly affects the navigational safety in the area. With the increased activity level in the region due to opening of the ice waters, increased tourism, exploration for natural resources etc., this is a big cause for concern for both human lives and potential environmental disasters from groundings. At DHI GRAS, we are working on minimising these risks. With modern satellites and advanced physical modeling of the water column, it is possible to derive reliable water depths in shallow waters at low costs with no risks associated.

map illustration of the resulting bathymetry dataset

DHI GRAS is a leading global provider of satellite derived bathymetry based on our sensor-independent state-of-the-art physically-based models. Together with our local partners in Greenland, our satellite derived bathymetry expert, @Mikkel Lydholm Rasmussen and I have just completed a validation campaign in Greenland. Through collection of multibeam echo sounder data, it was clearly demonstrated that our satellite derived bathymetry product performs very well also in Arctic waters.

With the abundance of satellite image data sources, such as Sentinel 2 and other commercial data sources such as DigitalGlobe satellites, we are now ready to start large scale production of shallow water bathymetry in Greenland and elsewhere in the Arctic region.

Let us know if you are interested in validation results and the satellite derived bathymetry dataset; RLB@dhigroup.com.

See video:https://youtu.be/vaetuRfyeGY

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