Journal of the European Optical Society - Rapid publications, Vol 5 (2010)

Marine bubble detection using optical-flow techniques

O. Zielinski, B. Saworski, J. Schulz

Abstract


Bubble detection and quantification is of high relevance for the observation of gas and fluid seeps within the marine environment. The presented work suggests and successfully investigates the application of an image processing strategy based on the optical flow concept followed by a customised thresholding and a new segmentation approach. Both are applicable for laboratory conditions and in situ video sequences, as shown for a deep-sea methane vent.

© The Authors. All rights reserved. [DOI: 10.2971/jeos.2010.10016s]

Full Text: PDF

Citation Details


Cite this article

References


E. J. Sauter, S. I. Muyakshin, J. L. Charlou, M. Schluter, A. Boetius, K. Jerosch, E. Damm, J.-P. Foucher, and M. Klages, "Methane discharge from a deep-sea submarine mud volcano into the upper water column by gas hydrate-coated methane bubbles" Earth Planet. Sc. Lett. 243, 354-365 (2006).

H. Sahling, G. Bohrmann, Y. G. Artemov, A. Bahr, M. Brüning, S. A. Klapp, I. Klaucke, E. Kozlova, A. Nikolovska, T. Pape, A. Reitz, and K. Wallmann, "Vodyanitskii mud volcano, Sorokin Trough, Black Sea: geological characterization and quantification of gas bubble streams" Mar. Petrol. Geol. 26, 1799-1811 (2009).

I. Leifer, and I. MacDonald, "Dynamics of the gas flux from shallow gas hydrate deposits: interaction between oily hydrate bubbles and the oceanic environment" Earth Planet. Sc. Lett. 210, 411-424 (2003).

I. Leifer, and J. Boles, "Measurement of marine hydrocarbon seep flow through fractured rock and unconsolidated sediment" Mar. Petrol. Geol. 22, 551-568 (2005).

K. Thomanek, O. Zielinski, H. Sahling, and G. Bohrmann, "Automated gas bubble imaging at sea floor - a new method of in situ gas flux quantification" Ocean Sci. Discuss. 7, 291-334 (2010).

B. Jähne, Digital Image Processing (Springer, Berlin, 2005).

B. Saworski, and O. Zielinski, Comparison of machine vision based methods for online in situ oil seep detection and quantification (IEEE Proceedings of the Oceans Conference, Bremen, 1-4, 11-14 May 2009).

B. Horn, and B. G. Schunck, "Determining optical flow" Artif. Intell. 17, 185-203 (1981).

N. Wiener, Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series (John Wiley, New York, 1949).