Abstract
We have mapped more of the surface of the Moon and Mars than our own ocean floor-but that is changing. I present the latest developments behind three technologies for imaging and mapping underwater habitats; fluid lensing, MiDAR, and NeMO-Net. New results from 2022 airborne field campaigns in Guam and Lana'i have extended the capabilities of these instruments and improved upon the record-breaking 45ft depth 3D image presented less than one year ago. New capabilities with fluid lensing including marine fauna detection has advanced the tantalizing goal of assessing the biodiversity of shallow marine systems in their entirety at cm scales using remote sensing, from coral benthic cover to shark, turtle, and fish detection. Fluid lensing is a technology that can be used from satellites and aerial drones to map shallow marine environments, such as coral reefs, at unprecedented resolution in 3D. MiDAR is a active hyperspectral instrument that can be used to sense living creatures and nonliving structures in light-limited environments on the ocean floor in wavelengths spanning the far ultraviolet and visible bands. Finally, NeMO-Net is a machine-learning video game that teaches citizen scientists to classify coral reefs at high accuracy using data from fluid lensing & MiDAR. Together, these technologies present promising innovations that address ongoing challenges in mapping oceans on Earth and other planets.