Cartographie des hauts fonds par télédétection dans l'archipel des Gambier (Polynésie française)

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Abstract
Bathymétrie mapping based on remote sensing in the Gambier Archipelago (French Polynesia). — The present study is based on a scene of the Landsat 3 satellite (25/01/79) and on continuous bathymétrie records carried out by the author, as a field control, in the lagoons of the Gambier Islands and of Temoe Atoll. Correlations are established between the water depths and the digital values recorded by Landsat, and this allows for a detailed computer bathymétrie mapping of shallow coral reefs. This makes possible not only to test the accuracy of the available charts, but also to map at very little cost some hitherto uncharted areas, such as the northern part of the Gambier Lagoon and the "Portland Bane", which is in fact a submerged atoll. In conclusion, the resolution of Landsat is not the best adapted to the coral reef environment and local water depths can be evaluated only taking into account rather high confidence intervals. With Spot satellites however, one may anticipate an obvious improvement in marine charts where the water is transparent, the sky cloudless and the water depth less than twenty metres.

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