Sonar
Chapter 9
History
Sound Navigation And Ranging (SONAR)
developed during WW II
Sound pulses emitted reflected off metal
objects with characteristic ping
Like radar and lidar time of flight is measured
to determine distance
Early sonar gave only distance and direction
to target
Modern sonar used for mapping
History
GIS-compatible bathymetric data now
available for many regions
Used for geologic mapping of seafloor
Search and recovery operations
Environmental monitoring
Principles of SONAR
Sound waves are a mechanical vibration
Can only travel through an elastic medium
(air, water, earth)
Measured by frequency instead of
wavelength ()
How is frequency related to ?
Principles
f = vw /
Vw is the speed and f is frequency
Usually give as cycles/second or hertz (Hz)
Human hearing in the rage of 20 20,000 Hz
Sound waves are much slower than EM
radiation
In water, sound travels about 1,500 m/s
Speed of light is about 3 x 108 m/s
Principles
Ultrasound is used in medicine and
sometimes in engineering
Uses frequencies of 1-15 MHz
Principles
In environmental work there are three
kinds of sonar
Side-scan
Usually in the range of 100 kHz - 400 kHz
Single beam
Usually at 12 kHz - 200 kHz
Multibeam to 6,000 m deep
Usually at 12 kHz - 200 kHz
Lower frequency = longer range and
reduced spatial resolution
Side-Scan Sonar
Has been used to detect objects and map
bottom characteristics
Shows size, shape and texture of features
Can determine length, width and height
The sonar is usually mounted on a sled or
towfish and dragged close to the bottom
About 10% of the maximum acoustic range
Low angle to emphasize surface relief
Image swaths about 100-500 m wide
Usually do 200% coverage to eliminate
gaps
Especially the track underneath the vessel
since that is not imaged
Far field image is degraded
Side Scan
Strong returns are brighter
Influenced by slope and surface roughness
Smooth surface is darker
Objects sticking up will create shadows
much like radar
Container ship
Acoustic Lens Sonar
Provides high resolution at close range in
turbid water
Developed in the 1990s
Frequencies between 1-2 MHz
Range of 1-30 m
Uses plastic lenses instead of electronics
to focus the beams onto a linear array of
acoustic transducers (like imaging
scanners)
Produces the image
Acoustic beamforming modifies the
propagation of sound by introducing
spatially dependent delays into a
wavefront.
This focuses incoming sound from a single
source or direction into a small volume of
space so that it can be detected by a single
transducer.
Acoustic beamforming can be implemented
using electronic circuitry or an acoustic lens
Acoustic Lens Sonar
Used to produce video at a rate of 6-20
frames per second
Used primarily by military to see in dark
Single Beam Sonar
Used primarily for mapping channels and
for engineering applications
Uses only a single source
Does not produce much data, because
only a single point for each pulse under
the tramsducer
Acoustic data points collected along intertwining transects in Rehoboth Bay, Delaware.
The points are classified as algae (green) or no algae (light blue). The points were
processed and used to derive a coarse map of the algae distribution (dark green
squares).
Multibeam Sonar
Sensor uses an array of sources and
receivers
Energy focused on a narrow strip beneath the
ship
Multiple echoes give a profile of depths along
a strip perpendicular to ship track
Swath width depends on depth
Usually 2-4x water depth
Multibeam Sonar
Crater Lake flyby
