Underwater forward scattering imaging model based on beam spatial broadening

The imaging of underwater objects that are illuminated by natural or artificial light has been one of the interested directions. The propagations of imaging light through water is complicated due to extreme attenuating and scattering properties of water, especially multiple scattering. A forward scattering model based on spatial broadening was presented to analyze and simulate the formation of underwater imaging. The MTF proposed by Wells was adopted to study the spatial broadening. It was found that the intervening water between the objects and receiver should also be regarded as a kind of light source, which brightened the entire image. Thus, the forward scattering model of water was introduced to complement the Wells' model based on small angle scattering. Then, the above mentioned models were programmed by Matlab. Simulated and measured images were identical. It is concluded that the forward scattering model proposed is valid for simulation of underwater images.