Seabed discrimination with downward and forward-looking sonars
conference paper
An area of about 100 square nautical miles in the North Sea has been surveyed with an echo
sounder and a forward-looking sonar, operated at 150 kHz and 100 kHz respectively. The signals
reflected and scattered off the sea floor were analysed in the laboratory to determine the echo
energy and echo shape parameters. As it appears, clustering occurs when features are plotted
against one another, where each cluster in parameter space corresponds to a distinct sediment type.
It is shown that the echo sounder discriminates between mud, sand and gravel, whereas the
forward-looking sonar also distinguishes intermediate sediment classes. Finally the results are
compared with a historical geological map and with 50 grab samples collected during the sea
trials
sounder and a forward-looking sonar, operated at 150 kHz and 100 kHz respectively. The signals
reflected and scattered off the sea floor were analysed in the laboratory to determine the echo
energy and echo shape parameters. As it appears, clustering occurs when features are plotted
against one another, where each cluster in parameter space corresponds to a distinct sediment type.
It is shown that the echo sounder discriminates between mud, sand and gravel, whereas the
forward-looking sonar also distinguishes intermediate sediment classes. Finally the results are
compared with a historical geological map and with 50 grab samples collected during the sea
trials
TNO Identifier
95510
ISBN
83-907-5918-7
Publisher
Gdansk Univ. of Technology
Source title
Proceedings of the 6th European conference on underwater acoustics, ECUA 2002, 24-27 June 2002, Gdansk, Poland
Place of publication
Gdansk
Pages
49-52
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