Abstract
Realistic predictions of the contribution of the various sources affecting the quality of the bathymetric measurements prior to a survey are of importance to ensure sufficient accuracy of the soundings. To this end, models predicting these contributions have been developed. The objective of the present paper is to assess the performance of the bathymetric uncertainty prediction model for modern Multi-Beam Echo-Sounder (MBES) systems. Two datasets were acquired at water depths of 10 m and 30 m with three pulse lengths equaling 27 s , 54 s , and 134 s in the Oosterschelde estuary (The Netherlands). The comparison between the bathymetric uncertainties derived from the measurements and those predicted using the current model indicated a relatively good agreement except for the most outer beams. The performance of the uncertainty prediction model improved by accounting for the most recent insights into the contributors to the MBES depth uncertainties, i.e., the Doppler effect, baseline decorrelation (accounting for the pulse shape), and the signal-to-noise ratio.
Highlights
Reliable representation of the sea- and river-floor bathymetry is of high importance for a large number of applications, such as maintaining safe navigation, marine geology, off-shore construction, and habitat mapping [1,2,3]
Models have been developed to fulfil such a purpose enabling one to assess whether the required survey standards can be met in a specific measurement campaign for a given combination of measurement equipment, Multi-Beam Echo-Sounder (MBES), and environmental settings
New insights into the uncertainty sources affecting the quality of depth measurements have been obtained, such as the contribution of the baseline decorrelation, Doppler effect, and additive noise
Summary
Reliable representation of the sea- and river-floor bathymetry is of high importance for a large number of applications, such as maintaining safe navigation, marine geology, off-shore construction, and habitat mapping [1,2,3]. Acoustic remote sensing with Multi-Beam Echo-Sounder (MBES) systems has been extensively used for delivering such information due to the systems’ capability to map large areas in a relatively short period of time. Beamforming at reception enables determining the Two-Way Travel Time (TWTT) of the received signal for a set of predefined beam angles. The depth measurements are derived from the TWTT per beam and speed of sound in the water [5]. Similar to any type of measured parameter, the derived depths are affected by varying sources of uncertainty, such as those in the sound speed, motion, and rotation sensors
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