Side looking sonar image quality assessment using reference targets

Side-looking sonar systems, including side-scan sonar and synthetic aperture sonar, are widely used for seabed characterization. They also have applications in the detection and classification of objects on the seabed. In mine hunting, contacts obtained after detection and classification have a corresponding sonar contact confidence level based...

Scenarios for Benchmarking Range-Dependent Active Sonar Performance Models

A set of eight sonar problems, pertaining to man-made active sonar, with source frequencies ranging from 250 Hz to 3.5 kHz, is defined. The scenarios are designed to emphasize range dependent propagation aspects in coastal waters, with the aim of testing all terms of the sonar equation (except the detection threshold) both before and after...

Sonar Scenario A1: Killer Whale vs Chinook Salmon

The Validation of Sonar Performance Assessment Tools Symposium, organised by the Institute of Acoustics was held in Cambridge, UK on 7-9 April 2010. The meeting was held in memory of David E. Weston and consequently is also known as the “Weston Memorial Symposium”. Two sonar scenarios were considered for the Weston Memorial Symposium, one man...

Application of a maximum likelihood type estimator to the towed array shape estimation problem

At the TNO Physics and Electronics Laboratory (TNO-FEL), for a number of decades, the behaviour and performance of towed sonar systems has been studied extensively. Since the performance of towed sonars highly depends on the shape of the hydrophone array, the underwater acoustics group started performing research in this field in the 1980's....

The 'whistler nozzle' and horn as aero-acoustic sound sources in pipe systems