# Beyond NeRF Underwater: Learning Neural Reflectance Fields for True Color Correction of Marine Imagery

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03384 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03384/

## Key facts

- Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 10 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Apr 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Mip-NeRF 360: Unbounded Anti-Aliased Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12077/) (2021)
- [Accelerating 3D Deep Learning with PyTorch3D](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.08501/) (2020)
- [Ref-NeRF: Structured View-Dependent Appearance for Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.03907/) (2021)
- [NeRF in the Dark: High Dynamic Range View Synthesis from Noisy Raw Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13679/) (2021)
- [Neural Reflectance Fields for Appearance Acquisition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.03824/) (2020)
- [Fast Underwater Image Enhancement for Improved Visual Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.09766/) (2019)
- [WaterGAN: Unsupervised Generative Network to Enable Real-time Color Correction of Monocular Underwater Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.07392/) (2017)
- [S3-NeRF: Neural Reflectance Field from Shading and Shadow under a Single Viewpoint](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08936/) (2022)
- [WaterNeRF: Neural Radiance Fields for Underwater Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.13091/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [WaterSplatting: Fast Underwater 3D Scene Reconstruction Using Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.08206/) (2024)
- [SeaSplat: Representing Underwater Scenes with 3D Gaussian Splatting and a Physically Grounded Image Formation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.17345/) (2024)
- [DarkGS: Learning Neural Illumination and 3D Gaussians Relighting for Robotic Exploration in the Dark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10814/) (2024)
- [RecGS: Removing Water Caustic with Recurrent Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10318/) (2024)
- [Aquatic-GS: A Hybrid 3D Representation for Underwater Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.00239/) (2024)
- [PhotoReg: Photometrically Registering 3D Gaussian Splatting Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.05044/) (2024)
- [NeuroPump: Simultaneous Geometric and Color Rectification for Underwater Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.15890/) (2024)
- [WaterHE-NeRF: Water-ray Tracing Neural Radiance Fields for Underwater Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06946/) (2023)
- [Robust Low-light Scene Restoration via Illumination Transition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.03976/) (2025)
- [3D Foundation Models Enable Simultaneous Geometry and Pose Estimation of Grasped Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10331/) (2024)
- [PIR: Photometric Inverse Rendering with Shading Cues Modeling and Surface Reflectance Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06828/) (2024)
- [Infinite Leagues Under the Sea: Photorealistic 3D Underwater Terrain Generation by Latent Fractal Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06784/) (2025)
- [Relative Illumination Fields: Learning Medium and Light Independent Underwater Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.10024/) (2025)
- [OceanSplat: Object-aware Gaussian Splatting with Trinocular View Consistency for Underwater Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.04984/) (2026)
- [Spatiotemporal Degradation-Aware 3D Gaussian Splatting for Realistic Underwater Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.23551/) (2026)
- [Removing Adverse Volumetric Effects From Trained Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.10523/) (2023)
- [UW-SDF: Exploiting Hybrid Geometric Priors for Neural SDF Reconstruction from Underwater Multi-view Monocular Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08092/) (2024)
- [WaterClear-GS: Optical-Aware Gaussian Splatting for Underwater Reconstruction and Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.19753/) (2026)
- [NeRF-To-Real Tester: Neural Radiance Fields as Test Image Generators for Vision of Autonomous Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.16141/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Underwater imagery often exhibits distorted coloration as a result of light-water interactions, which complicates the study of benthic environments in marine biology and geography. In this research, we propose an algorithm to restore the true color (albedo) in underwater imagery by jointly learning the effects of the medium and neural scene representations. Our approach models water effects as a combination of light attenuation with distance and backscattered light. The proposed neural scene representation is based on a neural reflectance field model, which learns albedos, normals, and volume densities of the underwater environment. We introduce a logistic regression model to separate water from the scene and apply distinct light physics during training. Our method avoids the need to estimate complex backscatter effects in water by employing several approximations, enhancing sampling efficiency and numerical stability during training. The proposed technique integrates underwater light effects into a volume rendering framework with end-to-end differentiability. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world data demonstrate that our method effectively restores true color from underwater imagery, outperforming existing approaches in terms of color consistency.