Improving multi-beam echo sounder depth measurements
conference paper
An important research question is how to adequately correct multi-beam echo sounder (MBES) bathymetric data for refraction effects. This is especially relevant for survey areas, like the Maasgeul area off the Dutch coast, where the water column properties and thus the prevailing sound speed profile (SSP), are highly dynamic. Expensive, and therefore not widely applied, towed systems are available for performing SSP measurements continuously. Other options provide sparse SSP measurements only. Consequently, in practice, correcting for refraction is hampered due to insufficient knowledge of the prevailing SSP at the time of the MBES measurement. We present a new approach to correct for refraction. This approach requires and fully exploits the possibility of the MBES to survey adjacent swathes with overlap. Due to variations in the prevailing SSP and sparse SSP measurements, depths determined at overlapping points will in general differ. Here, a Monte Carlo search is used to find SSPs that minimize these depth differences. To this extent the SSP is parameterized according to a set of basis functions determined from historical SSP data from the survey area.
TNO Identifier
224335
Source title
Hydro '06, Evolutions in Hydrography, Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of the International Federation of Hydrographic Societies, 6-9 November 2006, Antwerp, Belgium
Pages
97-100
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