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Side-looking sonar backscatter response at dual frequencies

  • Section II: Seabed Classification
  • Published:
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Abstract

Dual-frequency side-looking sonars have the potential to be used as remote sensing tools to characterize subaqueous terrains. In one case study of the carbonate-ooze-coated Blake Plateau off-shore of Georgia, U.S.A., the difference in acoustic attenuation for 50 and 20 mm wavelengths (30 and 72 kHz frequency) permits the discrimination of sub-bottom scatterers from seabed surface textural features to reveal patchy regions where a buried hard ground had been pock-marked by karst-like depressions. In a second study of the Upper Hudson River in New York, U.S.A., related to environmental contaminates, the backscatter response at 15 and 3 mm acoustic wavelengths (100 and 500 kHz frequency) serves as a useful proxy for sediment grain size with coarser detritus distinguished from finer sediments. Sand and gravel regions inferred from the backscatter were confirmed by ground truth sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA

    William B. F. Ryan

  2. Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, USA

    Roger D. Flood

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  1. William B. F. Ryan
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  2. Roger D. Flood
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Ryan, W.B.F., Flood, R.D. Side-looking sonar backscatter response at dual frequencies. Marine Geophysical Researches 18, 689–705 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00313881

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