  Underwater images suffer from color distortion and low contrast, because
light is attenuated while it propagates through water. Attenuation under water
varies with wavelength, unlike terrestrial images where attenuation is assumed
to be spectrally uniform. The attenuation depends both on the water body and
the 3D structure of the scene, making color restoration difficult.
  Unlike existing single underwater image enhancement techniques, our method
takes into account multiple spectral profiles of different water types. By
estimating just two additional global parameters: the attenuation ratios of the
blue-red and blue-green color channels, the problem is reduced to single image
dehazing, where all color channels have the same attenuation coefficients.
Since the water type is unknown, we evaluate different parameters out of an
existing library of water types. Each type leads to a different restored image
and the best result is automatically chosen based on color distribution.
  We collected a dataset of images taken in different locations with varying
water properties, showing color charts in the scenes. Moreover, to obtain
ground truth, the 3D structure of the scene was calculated based on stereo
imaging. This dataset enables a quantitative evaluation of restoration
algorithms on natural images and shows the advantage of our method.
