Wideband Synthetic Aperture Sonar Backprojection with Maximization of Wave Number Domain Support

Wideband and widebeam synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) can provide information on the frequency- and aspect dependent scattering in a scene. We suggest an approach to predict the quality of the sensor data over the available frequencies and aspect angles. We relate the typical spatial domain quality metrics to their wave number domain (WD)...

Shadow Enhancement in Synthetic Aperture Sonar Using Fixed Focusing

Abstract—A shadow cast by an object on the seafloor is important information for target recognition in synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) images. Synthetic aperture imaging causes a fundamental limitation to shadow clarity because the illuminator is moved during the data collection. This leads to a blend of echo and shadow, or geometrical fill-in in...

Simulation of high resolution mine hunting sonar measurements

An acoustic simulator is vital for the development of sonar data processing. The most important features in the TNO 3D simulator SIMONA are detailed target response including shadow, reverberation modelling, sonar properties and multipath. The verification and development of SIMONA was realized alongside with a wide range of measurements in a...

Sonar path correction in synthetic aperture processing

In the next generation of mine hunting sonars, in particular on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) will play an important role. The benefit of SAS is to increase resolution and signal-tonoise ratio by coherent processing of successive pings. A challenge in SAS is the computational load. This is caused primarily...