Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Articles

1984: Vol. LXI, No. 2

Interfereometric Side-Scan Sonar — A Topographic Sea-Floor Mapping System

Submitted
August 6, 2015
Published
2015-07-15

Abstract

The knowledge of bottom topography of our oceans is one of the requirements for engineering and marine geology. Particularly in shallow coastal areas, however, topography is frequently changed by storms and tidal currents. Repeated surveys at short intervals are necessary for up-to-date information. The employment of echo-sounders, which can take one depth profile at a time, is time consuming and means great expense for this work. This paper presents a new system called Interferometric Side-Scan Sonar (ISSS), that records images with fringe patterns which are geometrically related to several depth profiles. The evaluation of these data is done by digital image processing methods with respect to a geometrical model for the recording situation. Necessary additional data for orientation such as rotation and positioning of the sensor are taken into account.