Sidescan survey results from a multibeam sonar system—sea beam 2000

Abstract

Abstract Over the last decade, the oceanographic community has witnessed rapid development in deep sea survey technology. Multibeam sonar systems have virtually replaced the traditional single beam echo sounders by providing higher‐density and higher‐quality topographic data. Until now, surveys generally were complemented by first‐order (flat bottom assumption) ground range corrected sidescan sonar systems providing seafloor imagery and textural information. Traditionally this meant surveying the same area twice for the complete description of the seafloor. This provided the impetus for trying to obtain both types of information from the same survey system. Research by different investigators yielded varying degrees of success in extracting bathymetric information from sidescan surveys, or sidescanlike images from the multibeam sonars in postprocessing of the field data and in blending the two for full topographic correction. This article presents the sidescan images generated during the sea trial of Sea Beam 2000, a new generation multibeam system that covers an angular range of — 60 to 60 degrees from vertical with 121 beams. The images, comparable in quality to traditional sidescan systems, are fully corrected in real time for topographic and ship speed variations. They demonstrate the breakthrough in technology for obtaining both topographic and textural information simultaneously from a precision multibeam sonar system.