Acoustic remote profiling of horizontal surfaces using a monopulse technique has been demonstrated in both a lake and shallow‐water ocean environment. Data were taken at a center frequency of 30 kHz using pulses with up to a 5‐kHz bandwidth. Excessive variations in the computed profile curves for the lake bottom appeared to be due to penetration of sound into the sediment. Variations in the profile curves decreased when examining an extended planar target deployed on the lake surface. The larger impedance mismatch between the water and air certainly prevented sound penetration beyond the interface. The ocean data profile curves exhibited a bias due to noise effects from surface reverberation. Multiping averaging reduced profile variability.