Planar SAS for Sea Bottom and Subbottom Imaging: Concept Validation in Tank

• Published in: IEEE journal of oceanic engineering Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 614 - 627
• Main Authors: Belkacem, A., Besbes, K., Chatillon, J., Zakharia, M.E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.07.2006; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Approximation; Chirp; Computer simulation; Footprints; Gain; Geometry; Image resolution; Imaging; Imaging sonar; Marine; Marine vehicles; Point spread functions; Remotely operated vehicles; Signal resolution; Sonar; subbottom profiling; Synthetic aperture sonar; Tanks; Transducers; Two dimensional displays; Wideband
• ISSN: 0364-9059; 1558-1691
• DOI: 10.1109/JOE.2005.862085

The paper deals with a new concept of imaging technique based on planar synthetic aperture sonar (P-SAS). P-SAS processing takes advantage of the overlap of both ping-to-ping and track to track footprints to improve the imaging resolution in both directions. After describing the method, its implementation is discussed. The exact implementation [three-dimensional (3-D)] is defined and an approximated and faster approach [2timestwo-dimensional (2-D)] is then proposed. The gain in computation time and the possible loss in performances (resolutions, echo amplitude) are investigated by simulating a simple point target. The point spread function is studied in details. The new concept is finally validated by tank experiments (scale about 100) for both proud and buried target imaging