Abstract
Bathymetric data represents estimated seafloor topography and aids in understanding the intricacies of earth and ocean interaction processes. The General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) released the GEBCO_2023 gridded bathymetric data as an interim dataset in connection with the ambitious task of producing the definitive ocean floor map for the globe by 2023. Evaluating the data of scientific importance is essential to ensure its fitness for the applications; however, the procedure needs qualified reference data of higher accuracy for comparison. This article discusses the methods and results of performance validation on GEBCO_2023 using the seafloor obtained from the ICESat-2 geolocated photons as a reference. The validation was carried out at three test sites containing shallow waters in the Indian Ocean. In two of the test sites, where the coastal waters have minimal influence from the continental sediment flux, the trend of the seafloor from both the data sources is similar, and the quantified accuracy of GEBCO_2023 in terms of RMSE is less than 3 m. In the extent of the third test site, where mostly perennial turbidity prevails, the accuracy of the GEBCO’s seafloor depth in terms of RMSE and MAE is in the range of 5–6 m, with underestimation of the seafloor. The reasons for the errors in the GEBCO_2023 grid were analyzed based on the associated metadata, namely, the Type-Identifier grid that informs the source of depth data for a given grid cell. In summary, the GEBCO_2023 grid is the best available and resourceful bathymetric data in the present scenario where challenges and complications exist for mapping the ocean surface besides technological advancements.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All the data used in the material are freely available from the respective websites Gebco-2023 gridded bathymetric data Is available freely from https://www.gebco.net/ Label-2A ATL03 data is freely available from https://nsidc.org/data/icesat-2.
References
Anjusha A, Jyothibabu R, Jagadeesan L, Mohan AP, Sudheesh K, Krishna K, Ulas N, Deepak MP (2013) Trophic efficiency of plankton food webs: observations from the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay, Southeast Coast of India. J Mar Syst 115:40–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmarsys.2013.02.003
Bansal SP (2005) Encyclopaedia of India. Smriti Books, New Delhi, p 216
Carpine-Lancre J, Fisher R, Harper B, Hunter P, Jones M, Kerr A, Laughton A, Ritchie S, Scott D, Whitmarsh M (2003) The history of GEBCO 1903–2003: the 100-year story of the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans. GITC bv, Netherlands, p 140
Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem (2023) https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
Dandabathula G (2022) Applications of ICESat-2 photon data in the third pole environment. In: Pandey M, Pandey PC, Ray Y, Arora A, Jawak SD, Shukla UK (eds) Advances in remote sensing technology and the three poles. Wiley, New York, pp 213–229. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119787754.ch14
Dandabathula G, Rao SS (2020) Validation of ICESat-2 surface water level product ATL13 with near real time gauge data. Hydrology 8(2):19–25. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20200802.11
Dandabathula G, Hari R, Sharma J, Sharma A, Ghosh K, Bera AK, Srivastav SK (2023) Prerequisite condition of diffuse attenuation coefficient Kd(490) for detecting seafloor from ICESat-2 geolocated photons during shallow water bathymetry. Hydrology 11(1):11–22. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20231101.12
Deleersnijder E, Beckers JM (1992) On the use of the σ-coordinate system in regions of large bathymetric variations. J Mar Syst 3(4–5):381–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/0924-7963(92)90011-V
Dysart PS (1996) Bathymetric surface modeling: a machine learning approach. J Geophys Res 101(B4):8093–8105
Fairhead JD, Green CM, Odegard ME (2001) Satellite-derived gravity having an impact on marine exploration. Lead Edge 20(8):873–876
Gao J (2009) Bathymetric mapping by means of remote sensing: methods, accuracy and limitations. Prog Phys Geogr 33(1):103–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133309105657
GEBCO (2023) The General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans. https://www.gebco.net. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
GEBCO Compilation Group (2023) GEBCO_2023 Grid. https://doi.org/10.5285/f98b053b-0cbc-6c23-e053-6c86abc0af7b. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
GEBCO Grid Development (2023) How the GEBCO grid is developed. https://www.gebco.net/data_and_products/gridded_bathymetry_data/grid_production/. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
Griffiths G (2002) Technology and applications of autonomous underwater vehicles, vol II. CRC Press, London, p 368
Guo X, Jin X, Jin S (2022) Shallow water bathymetry mapping from ICESat-2 and Sentinel-2 based on BP neural network model. Water 14(23):3862. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14233862
Hanagan C, Mershon B (2023) Geoid height calculator, UNAVCO. https://www.unavco.org/software/geodetic-utilities/geoid-height-calculator/geoid-height-calculator.html. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
Herzfeld UC, McDonald BW, Wallin BF, Neumann TA, Markus T, Brenner A, Field C (2013) Algorithm for detection of ground and canopy cover in micropulse photon-counting lidar altimeter data in preparation for the ICESat-2 mission. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 52(4):2109–2125. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2013.2258350
Hsu HJ, Huang CY, Jasinski M, Li Y, Gao H, Yamanokuchi T, Wang CG, Change TM, Ren H, Kuo CY, Tseng KH (2021) A semi-empirical scheme for bathymetric mapping in shallow water by ICESat-2 and Sentinel-2: a case study in the South China Sea. ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens 178:1–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2021.05.012
Huang J, Xing Y, You H, Qin L, Tian J, Ma J (2019) Particle swarm optimization-based noise filtering algorithm for photon cloud data in forest area. Remote Sens 11(8):980. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11080980
Jyothibabu R, Mohan AP, Jagadeesan L, Anjusha A, Muraleedharan KR, Lallu KR, Kiran K, Ullas N (2013) Ecology and trophic preference of picoplankton and nanoplankton in the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay, southeast coast of India. J Mar Syst 111:29–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmarsys.2012.09.006
Jyothibabu R, Madhu NV, Jagadeesan L, Anjusha A, Mohan AP, Ullas N, Sudheesh K, Karnan C (2014) Why do satellite imageries show exceptionally high chlorophyll in the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay during the Norteast Monsoon? Environ Monit Assess 186:7781–7792. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-3966-4
Kohn AJ (2001) The conidae of India revisited. Phuket Mar Biol Centre Spec Publ 25:357–362
Kui M, Xu Y, Wang J, Cheng F (2023) Research on the adaptability of typical denoising algorithms based on ICESat-2 data. Remote Sens 15(15):3884. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15153884
Kumar NKCV, Malini BH, Rao KN, Demudu G, Aggrawal R, Ramachandran R, Rajawat AS (2015) Occurrence of Storms and Storm surges along east coast of India. Deccan Geogr 53(2):12–24
Marks K (2019) The IHO-IOC GEBCO Cook Book. IHO Publication, Monaco, p 493
Marks KM, Smith WHF, Sandwell DT (2010) Evolution of errors in the altimetric bathymetry model used by Google Earth and GEBCO. Mar Geophys Res 31:223–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-010-9102-0
Markus T, Neumann T, Martino A, Abdalati W, Brunt K, Csatho B, Farrell S, Fricker H, Gardner A, Harding D, Jasinki M, Kwok R, Magruder L, Lubin D, Luthcke S, Morison J, Nelson R, Neuenschwander A, Palm S, Popescu S, Shum CK, Schutz BE, Smith B, Yang Y, Zwally J (2017) The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2): science requirements, concept, and implementation. Remote Sens Environ 190:260–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2016.12.029
Mascarenhas A (2004) Oceanographic validity of buffer zones for the east coast of India: a hydrometeorological perspective. Curr Sci 86(3):399–406
Mayer L, Jakobsson M, Allen G, Dorschel B, Falconer R, Ferrini V, Lamarche G, Snaith H, Weatherall P (2018) The Nippon Foundation—GEBCO seabed 2030 project: the quest to see the world’s oceans completely mapped by 2030. Geosciences 8(2):63. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences8020063
Miththapala S (2021) The Gulf of Mannar and its surroundings: a resource book for teachers in the Mannar District. IUCN, Colombo, p 64
Mukerji SK (1992) Islands of India. Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt of India, New Delhi, p 204
Murty TS, El-Sabh MI (1992) Mitigating the effects of storm surges generated by tropical cyclones: a proposal. Nat Hazards 6:251–273
Murty TS, Flather RA, Henry RF (1986) The storm surge problem in the Bay of Bengal. Prog Oceanogr 16(4):195–233
Neumann TA, Martino AJ, Markus T, Bae S, Bock MR, Brenner AC, Brunt KM, Cavanaugh J, Fernandes ST, Hancock DW, Harbeck K, Lee J, Kurtz NT, Luers PJ, Luthcke SB, Magruder L, Pennington TA, Ramos-Izquierdo L, Rebod T, Skoog J, Thomas TC (2019) The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite–2 Mission: a global geolocated photon product derived from the advanced topographic laser altimeter system. Remote Sens Environ 233:111325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111325
Neumann TA, A Brenner A, Hancock D, Robbins J, Saba J, Harbeck K, Gibbons A, Lee J, Luthcke SB, Rebold T (2021) ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A global geolocated photon data, version 5. NASA NSIDC-DAAC, Boulder
NSIDC (2018) National Snow and Ice Data Center. https://nsidc.org/data/icesat-2. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
Parrish CE, Magruder LA, Neuenschwander AL, Forfinski-Sarkozi N, Alonzo M, Jasinski M (2019) Validation of ICESat-2 ATLAS bathymetry and analysis of ATLAS’s bathymetric mapping performance. Remote Sens 11(14):1634. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11141634
Parrish CE, Magruder L, Herzfeld U, Thomas N, Markel J, Jasinski M, Imahori G, Herrmann J, Trantow T, Borsa A, Stumpf R, Eder B, Caballero I (2022) ICESat-2 bathymetry: advances in methods and science. In: OCEANS 2022, IEEE, Hampton Roads, pp 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1109/OCEANS47191.2022.9977206
Premarathne U, Suzuki N (2014) Hydrocarbon prospectivity of shallow water areas in the northern Mannar basin, offshore Sri Lanka. In: Proceedings of 30th annual technical sessions of geological society of Sri Lanka, Colombo
Premarathne U, Suzuki N, Ratnayake N, Kularathne C (2016) Burial and thermal history modelling of the Mannar Basin, offshore Sri Lanka. J Pet Geol 39(2):193–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpg.12640
Rajendran CP, Earnest A, Rajendran K, Das RD, Kesavan S (2003) The 13 September 2002 North Andaman (Diglipur) earthquake: An analysis in the context of regional seismicity. Curr Sci 84(7):919–924
Rajendran CP, Rajendran K, Anu R, Earnest A, Machado T, Mohan PM, Freymueller J (2007) Crustal deformation and seismic history associated with the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake: a perspective from the Andaman-Nicobar Islands. Bull Seismol Soc Am 97(1A):S174–S191
Rajkumar A, Hussain SM, Nishath NM, Dewi KT, Sivapriya V, Radhakrishnan K (2020) Recent ostracod biodiversity from shelf to slope sediments of Gulf of Mannar, India: ecologic and Bathymetric implications. J Palaeontol Soc India 65(1):73–80
Ranndal H, Sigaard Christiansen P, Kliving P, Baltazar Andersen O, Nielsen K (2021) Evaluation of a statistical approach for extracting shallow water bathymetry signals from ICESat-2 ATL03 photon data. Remote Sens 13(17):3548. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13173548
Schneider P, Xhafa F (2022) Anomaly detection: concepts and methods. In: Schneider P, Xhafa F (eds) Anomaly detection and complex event processing over IoT data streams: with application to EHealth and patient data monitoring. Academic Press, New York, pp 49–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-823818-9.00013-4
Sentinel-3 Mission (2023) Sentinel Online. https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/user-guides/sentinel-3-olci. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
Sentinel-3 User Handbook (2017) https://filetransfer.itc.nl/pub/dragon4/Optical-Thermal/D2OTP1-Hyperspectral-DOdermatt/references/Sentinel-3_User_Handbook-iss1_v1_20170113.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
Sentinel-Hub (2023) WMS. https://www.sentinel-hub.com/develop/api/ogc/standard-parameters/wms/. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
Smet S, Michel R, Bollinger L (2008) Uplift of the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake measured from differential hyperspectral imagery of coastal waters. J Geophys Res. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JB005317
Smith WH (1993) On the accuracy of digital bathymetric data. J Geophys Res 98(B6):9591–9603. https://doi.org/10.1029/93JB00716
Smith WH, Sandwell DT (1997) Global sea floor topography from satellite altimetry and ship depth soundings. Science 277(5334):1956–1962. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5334.1956
Sun Y, Zheng W, Li Z, Zhou Z, Zhou X, Wen Z (2023) Improving the accuracy of bathymetry using the combined neural network and gravity wavelet decomposition method with altimetry derived gravity data. Mar Geodesy 46:271–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490419.2023.2179140
The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project (2017) https://seabed2030.org/. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
Tian X, Shan J (2022) Detection of signal and ground photons from ICESat-2 ATL03 data. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 61:1–14. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2022.3232053
United Nations (2017) Provide fundamental mapping of the Seas and Oceans. https://sdgs.un.org/partnerships/provide-fundamental-mapping-seas-and-oceans. Accessed 25 Nov 2023
Vogt PA, Tucholke BE (1986) Imaging of the ocean floor. In: Vogt PA, Tucholke BE (eds) The Western North Atlantic Region. Geological Society of America, Boulder, pp 19–44
Watts AB, Tozer B, Harper H, Boston B, Shillington DJ, Dunn R (2020) Evaluation of shipboard and satellite-derived bathymetry and gravity data over seamounts in the northwest Pacific Ocean. J Geophys Res 125(10):e2020JB020396. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB020396
Weatherall P, Marks KM, Jakobsson M, Schmitt T, Tani S, Arndt JE, Rovere M, Chayes D, Ferrini V, Wigley R (2015) A new digital bathymetric model of the world’s oceans. Earth Space Sci 2:331–345. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015EA000107
Willmott CJ, Matsuura K (2006) On the use of dimensioned measures of error to evaluate the performance of spatial interpolators. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 20(1):89–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/13658810500286976
Wölfl AC, Snaith H, Amirebrahimi S, Devey CW, Dorschel B, Ferrini V, Huvenne VAI, Jakobsson M, Jencks J, Johnston G, Lamarche G, Mayer L, Millar D, Pedersen TH, Picard K, Reitz A, Schmitt T, Visbeck M, Weatherall P, Wigley R (2019) Seafloor mapping–the challenge of a truly global ocean bathymetry. Front Mar Sci 6:283. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00283
Xie C, Chen P, Pan D, Zhong C, Zhang Z (2021) Improved filtering of ICESat-2 lidar data for nearshore bathymetry estimation using sentinel-2 imagery. Remote Sens 13(21):4303. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214303
Yang J, Ma Y, Zheng H, Xu N, Zhu K, Wang XH, Li S (2022) Derived depths in opaque waters using ICESat-2 photon-counting lidar. Geophys Res Lett 49(22):e2022GL100509. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100509
Yapa KK (2000) Seasonal variability of sea surface chlorophyll-a of waters around Sri Lanka. J Earth Syst Sci 109:427–432. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02708330
Zhang Z, Liu X, Ma Y, Xu N, Zhang W, Li S (2021) Signal photon extraction method for weak beam data of ICESat-2 using information provided by strong beam data in mountainous areas. Remote Sens 13(5):863. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050863
Zhang B, Ji D, Liu S, Zhu X, Xu W (2023) Autonomous underwater vehicle navigation: a review. Ocean Eng. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.113861
Zhong J, Liu X, Shen X, Jiang L (2023) A robust algorithm for photon denoising and bathymetric estimation based on ICESat-2 data. Remote Sens 15(8):2051. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15082051
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the science team of GEBCO and ICESat-2 for providing access to the data. Similarly, the authors sincerely thank the science teams of the Sentinel-3 A/B mission. This work was conducted with the infrastructure provided by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), for which the authors were indebted to the Director, NRSC, Hyderabad. The authors are very grateful to Mr. Manish K Verma for associating with this work and contributing to the 3-dimensional representation of the data. We acknowledge the continued support and scientific insights from Dr. Rakesh Paliwal, Mr. Rakesh Fararoda, and other staff members of Regional Remote Sensing Centre—West, NRSC/ISRO, Jodhpur. The authors would like to thank Ms. Bharthi Khandelwal and Ms. Alina Ali of Panjab University for improving the manuscript’s readability.
Funding
This research received no specific funds.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
DG has contributed in conceptualization, data screening, data curation, formal analysis, and writing/reviewing the original draft. RH has contributed for data curation and formal analysis. JS, KG and Np contributed in formal analysis of the data. AS and SKS contributed in ideation, supervision, and reviewing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of the manuscript.
Ethical approval
Not applicable.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
All authors give consent for publication.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Giribabu, D., Hari, R., Sharma, J. et al. Performance assessment of GEBCO_2023 gridded bathymetric data in selected shallow waters of Indian ocean using the seafloor from ICESat-2 photons. Mar Geophys Res 45, 1 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-023-09534-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-023-09534-z