Abstract
In this paper, we introduce a novel sub-bottom profiler, making good use of the Mills cross configuration of multibeam sonar and synthetic aperture techniques of the synthetic aperture sonar system. The receiver array is mounted along the ship keel, while the transmitter array is mounted perpendicular to the receiver array. With the synthetic aperture technique, the along-track resolution can be greatly improved. The system often suffers from motion error, which severely degrades the imaging performance. To solve this problem, the imaging algorithm with motion compensation (MC) is proposed. With the presented method, the motion error is first estimated based on overlapped elements between successive pulses. Then, the echo data is processed by using the range migration algorithm based on the phase center approximation (PCA) method, which simultaneously performs the MC with the estimated motion error. In order to validate the proposed sub-bottom profiler and data processing method, some simulations and lake trial results are discussed. The processing results of the real data further indicate that the presented configuration has great potential to find buried objects in seabed sediments.
Highlights
Nowadays, the exploration of buried sediment in the sea bottom draws researchers’ attention.Using the penetration capability of low frequency signals in water, the sub-bottom profiler [1] is often exploited to detect the structure of soft sediment
It is often configured with the Mills cross configuration by using a long linear projector aligned with the ship track and a long linear receiver array aligned perpendicular to the receiver array
This is different from traditional multibeam sonar [6], in that the receiver array is mounted along the keel of a ship, while the transmitter array is mounted perpendicular to the receiver array
Summary
The exploration of buried sediment in the sea bottom draws researchers’ attention. By using the Mills cross configuration of multibeam sonar and the synthetic aperture technique of the SAS system, this paper introduces a SAS framework called the SAS sub-bottom profiler This is different from traditional multibeam sonar [6], in that the receiver array is mounted along the keel of a ship, while the transmitter array is mounted perpendicular to the receiver array. Based on this new configuration, the along-track resolution can be obtained for high resolution images. A novel sub-bottom profiler based on the Mills cross configuration of multibeam sonar and the synthetic aperture technique of the SAS system is first proposed. The motion error distorting the imaging performance of presented sub-bottom profiler is estimated based on overlapped elements between successive pulses.
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