Bathymetric Lidar
GEOLIDAR for the study of surfaces, the biosphere and the hydrosphere

Aquatic environments contain: 1) particles and organic matter in suspension, 2) dissolved organic and mineral matter, 3) micro-organisms (phylo- and zooplankton), living creatures (fish, etc.) and plants clinging to surfaces or drifting. If we make the following analogies: water-air, particles in water-particles in air, and dissolved organic and mineral matter in water-atmospheric trace gases, lidar sounding of aquatic environments is comparable in principle to atmospheric sounding, but with a reduction in range by a factor of x 10³ to 10⁴ due to attenuation in the environment.

15 shows examples of attenuation coefficients (in...