Geometric corrections on sidescan sonar images based on bathymetry. Application with SeaMARC II and Sea Beam data

Acoustic backscatter images of the seafloor obtained with sidescan sonar systems are displayed most often using a flat bottom assumption. Whenever this assumption is not valid, pixels are mapped incorrectly in the image frame, yielding distorted representations of the seafloor. Here, such distortions are corrected by using an appropriate representation of the relief, as measured by the sonar that collected the acoustic backscatter information. In addition, all spatial filtering operations required in the pixel relocation process take the sonar geometry into account. Examples of the process are provided by data collected in the Northeastern Pacific over Fieberling Guyot with the SeaMARC II bathymetric sidescan sonar system and the Sea Beam multibeam echo-sounder. The nearly complete (90%) Sea Beam bathymetry coverage of the Guyot serves as a reference to quantify the distortions found in the backscatter images and to evaluate the accuracy of the corrections performed with SeaMARC II bathymetry. As a byproduct, the processed SeaMARC II bathymetry and the Sea Beam bathymetry adapted to the SeaMARC II sonar geometry exhibit a 35m mean-square difference over the entire area surveyed.On leave at the Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7420, Washington D.C. 20375-5350.     

Simultaneous operation of the Sea Beam multibeam echo-sounder andthe SeaMARC II bathymetric sidescan sonar system

An experiment aboard the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's RV Thomas Washington has demonstrated the seafloor mapping advantages to be derived from combining the high-resolution bathymetry of a multibeam echo-sounder with the sidescan acoustic imaging plus wide-swath bathymetry of a shallow-towed bathymetric sidescan sonar. To a void acoustic interference between the ship's 12-kHz Sea Beam multibeam echo-sounder and the 11-12-kHz SeaMARC II bathymetric sidescan sonar system during simultaneous operations, Sea Beam transmit cycles were scheduled around SeaMARC II timing events with a sound source synchronization unit originally developed for concurrent single-channel seismic, Sea Beam, and 3.5-kHz profile operations. The scheduling algorithm implemented for Sea Beam plus SeaMARC II operations is discussed, and the initial results showing their combined seafloor mapping capabilities are presented     

Constrained iterative deconvolution applied to SeaMARC I sidescansonar imagery

Images collected by any sidescan sonar system represent the convolution of the acoustic beam pattern of the instrument with the true echo amplitude distribution over the seafloor. At typical low speeds, the 1.7° beam width of SeaMARC I (seafloor mapping and remote characterization) results in multiple insonification of individual targets, particularly at the outside of the swath. A nonlinearly constrained iterative deconvolution technique developed for radar applications can be applied to SeaMARC I imagery to reduce the effect of the beam pattern and equalize the spectral content of the image across the swath. Since the deconvolution is implemented in the along-track direction, the registration of individual scan lines must be precisely corrected before the operator is applied. The deconvolution operator must be modeled to account for beam shape, vehicle speed, swath width, slant range, and ping rate. The method is numerically stable and increases the effective resolution of the image, but results in some loss of dynamic range. The technique is applied to target recognition and imagery from volcanic terrains of the central Juan de Fuca Ridge     

Performance of a single-beam pulse-to-pulse coherent Dopplerprofiler

We report on the testing of a single-beam 1.7-MHz coherent Doppler sonar. The system is PC-controlled, using a digital signal processor (DSP) to acquire and extract the velocity and backscatter amplitude data. Results from a series of tow-tank calibration tests demonstrate an accuracy in the order of 5 mm s^-1 for data rates of 10 profiles/second over a 1-2 m range with 1.5-cm range bins. An expression for system accuracy is developed which allows generalization to other pulse-to-pulse coherent Doppler systems. We present data showing the systematic decorrelation of backscatter signals due to particle advection: increased decorrelation is seen in the transducer near-field. Example observations of velocity profiles in laboratory-generated waves are presented     

Differential phase estimation with the SeaMARCII bathymetricsidescan sonar system

A maximum-likelihood estimator is used to extract differential phase measurements from noisy seafloor echoes received at pairs of transducers mounted on either side of the SeaMARC II bathymetric sidescan sonar system. Carrier frequencies for each side are about 1 kHz apart, and echoes from a transmitted pulse 2 ms long are analyzed. For each side, phase difference sequences are derived from the full complex data consisting of base-banded and digitized quadrature components of the received echoes. With less bias and a lower variance, this method is shown to be more efficient than a uniform mean estimator. It also does not exhibit the angular or time ambiguities commonly found in the histogram method used in the SeaMARC II system. A figure for the estimation uncertainty of the phase difference is presented, and results are obtained for both real and simulated data. Based on this error estimate and an empirical verification derived through coherent ping stacking, a single filter length of 100 ms is chosen for data processing applications     

Theoretical accuracy of Doppler navigation sonars and acoustic Doppler current profilers

This paper addresses the problem of Doppler shift estimation in Doppler sonar systems. The analysis focuses on the single-beam geometry formed by a circular planar array and considers both narrow-band (or so-called incoherent) and wide-band (or coherent) Doppler sonars, transmitting, respectively, one long continuous-wave pulse and a train of short continuous-wave pulses. The correlation function of the reverberation signal at the beam output is derived for volume reverberation. Directive transmission or reception and a combination of both is considered. Estimation theory is applied to derive the Cramer-Rao bound of the Doppler parameter estimate. The effect of pulse duration, sonar geometry, beamwidth, and signal-to-noise ratio are discussed. The accuracy of coherent and incoherent systems is compared for a specific case.     

Postprocessing and corrections of bathymetry derived from sidescansonar systems: application with SeaMARC II

A procedure for postprocessing bathymetry data provided by a phase-measuring sidescan sonar system is presented. The data were collected with the SeaMARC II system, and are generally characterized by a high level of noise and uneven spatial sampling. Before any spatial filtering is applied, data are selected to remove most of the obvious artifacts and to retain instantaneous depth profiles whose slant ranges increase monotonically from a central location to the edges of the swath. An extrapolation scheme, patterned after a potential field, is proposed to fill gaps in the coverage or to extend the bathymetric swath to that of the corresponding sidescan image when regridding the data to a rectangular frame. To fill the near nadir gap typically found in these data, a specific interpolation methodology is developed that takes into account the slant range of the first bottom return as received by the sidescan sonar itself or by a shipboard echo-sounder. Spatial low-pass filtering is applied through convolutions with parabolic windows whose width is proportional to the footprint of the acoustic beam along track and roughly 1/8 of the swath width across track. Mismatches of contour lines between adjacent tracks are reduced through a statistical method design to correct systematic profile errors     

Theoretical accuracy of synthetic aperture sonar micronavigation using a displaced phase-center antenna

The Cramer-Rao lower bounds on the cross-track translation and rotation of a displaced phase-center antenna (DPCA) in the slant range plane between two successive pings (known as DPCA sway and yaw in what follows) are computed, assuming statistically homogeneous backscatter. These bounds are validated using experimental data from a 118-182-kHz sonar, showing an accuracy of the order of 20 microns on the ping-to-ping cross-track displacements. Next, the accuracy required on the DPCA sway and yaw in order to achieve a given synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) beampattern specification, specified by the expected SAS array gain, is computed as a function of the number P of pings in the SAS. Higher accuracy is required when P increases to counter the accumulation of errors during the integration of the elementary ping-to-ping estimates: the standard deviation must decrease as P/sup -1/2/ for the DPCA sway and P/sup -3/2/ for the yaw. Finally, by combining the above results, the lower bounds on DPCA micronavigation accuracy are established. These bounds set an upper limit to the SAS length achievable in practice. The maximum gain Q in cross-range resolution achievable by a DPCA micronavigated SAS is computed as a function of the key SAS parameters. These theoretical predictions are compared with simulations and experimental results.     

Azimuthal ambiguities in synthetic aperture sonar and syntheticaperture radar imagery

It is shown that azimuthal ambiguities are not eliminated by the nulls of a sonar (or radar) beam pattern and have a definite influence on image quality. In synthetic aperture systems that are strongly limited in spatial sampling, particularly in ocean borne synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) and spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR), azimuthal ambiguities will corrupt the images unless special measures are taken. These azimuthal aliases may be reduced by emphasizing the centermost portion of the available synthetic aperture length, and deemphasizing the endmost portions. This minimizes the effects from synthetic array elements that most strongly contribute to aliases     

Swath bathymetry with GLORIA

For many years, GLORIA has been producing sonar images of the deep ocean floor. In the mid-1980's, the SeaMARC II system came to prominence producing depth values as well as sonar images. The basic method compares the phases of the signals returning from the seafloor to two rows of transducers. The phase differences are converted into angles of arrival and together with the arrival times converted into range and depth values. This capability has now been added to the GLORIA system. The fact that GLORIA uses a 2s FM pulse means the backscattered reverberation can come from a strip of seafloor up to 1.5 km wide. To accommodate this, overlapping complex FFT's are used to produce a time-frequency matrix for the returning signals. In this matrix, a constant range feature appears as a diagonal. Phases are then calculated using a least-mean-squares estimate along diagonals. The main source of error and bias is due to surface reflection, and this is taken into account. The GLORIA swath bathymetry system was tested on two cruises and it was possible to produce depth contours with a good level of confidence. The total swath width was over eight water depths and would have been greater with a more favorable velocity profile. Comparison with other bathymetry data (such as multibeam systems) showed excellent correlation, having a standard deviation of only 4% of total water depth     

Relative Height Estimation by Cross-Correlating Ground-Range Synthetic Aperture Sonar Images

The relative height of the seafloor can be estimated by using two vertically displaced receivers. In this paper, we propose techniques to improve the accuracy of the estimated height. Our results are based on the use of synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) imaging, which implies coherent addition of complex images acquired from a moving platform. The SAS processing improves the along-track (or azimuth) resolution, as well as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which in turn improves the estimated height accuracy. We show that the shift of the effective center frequency induced by coherent, frequency-dependent scattering affect the time-delay estimates from complex cross correlations, and we propose a correction technique for broadband signals with uneven magnitude spectra. To reduce the effect of geometrical decorrelation and increase the coherence between the images, we beamform the sonar images onto an a priori estimate of the seafloor height before correlating. We develop a mathematical model for the imaging geometry. Finally, we demonstrate our proposed estimators by providing relative seafloor height estimates from real aperture and SAS images, obtained during the InSAS-2000 experiment at Elba Island in Italy. In particular, we demonstrate that the SAS image quality is significantly improved by inclusion of the height estimates as a priori information.     

A large late pleistocene blocky debris flow on the central scotian slope

A SeaMARC I side-scan sonar survey on the central Scotian Slope shows a blocky debris flow with high surface roughness between the 1,000 and 2,000 m isobaths, covering an area of about 1,000 km². The flow is at least 20 m thick, occuring as lenses within channels and as sheets on intervalley areas. The surface reflectivity is variable, with blocks and depressions 50 to 200 m wide and relief of 5 to 20 m. The source zone lies within two canyons on the upper slope and has relatively smooth surface reflectivity, in contrast to the gullied slope to either side.     

The Impact of Multipath on High-Resolution SAS Image Statistics

As with traditional sonar, synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) is susceptible to multipath contamination, reducing the quality and also modifying the statistics of the image. Such multipath contaminants may either be environmentally induced, as is often the case when attempting to image ranges greater than the water depth resulting in returns from the boundaries, or may be induced by the system's supporting structure itself. A clear understanding of such statistical impact is necessary to advance synthetic aperture formation algorithms and for predicting system performance. Broadband acoustic data suitable for SAS processing collected with a rail-mounted mobile-tower as part of the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR)-funded Sediment Acoustics eXperiment 2004 (SAX04) are analyzed in this paper. Analysis focused on both system structure and environmentally induced multipath using the $K$ -distribution shape parameter as a metric. High-resolution sonar imagery often exhibited significantly non-Rayleigh, heavy-tailed envelope statistics, characterized by a low equivalent $K$-distribution shape parameter. Analysis showed a clear and significant increase in the estimated shape parameter in the presence of multipath, representing a trend toward a Rayleigh-distributed envelope. A model for reverberation is presented to provide bounds of the statistical impact using observable image intensity level increases in synthetic-aperture-formed images caused by multipath contamination. This model further shows potential for statistical impact when multipath arrivals are of similar level as the direct path even when not observable in the image (e.g., within 10 dB).      

Bistatic synthetic aperture imaging of proud and buried targets from an AUV

The use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for the detection of buried mines is an area of current interest to the Mine CounterMeasures (MCM) community. AUVs offer the advantages of lower cost, stealth, reduced operator risk, and potentially improved coverage rates over more traditional mine hunters. However, AUVs also come with their own set of difficulties, including significant error in navigation and low communication rates with the mother platform and each other. In the case of bistatic detection scenarios, AUVs will therefore have difficulty knowing where exactly in space they are and the trigger time of sources on other platforms, be they ships or other AUVs. However, the potential improvement in detection and coverage rates offered by bistatic sonar concepts makes resolution of these issues a high priority. In this paper, the problems of inaccurate navigation and source timing information are addressed for the Generic Oceanographic Array Technology data set. In this experiment, conducted off Marciana Marina during June 1998, a MIT AUV with a SACLANTCEN acoustic array and acquisition system was used together with a TOPAS parametric sonar to explore issues of buried target detection using AUVs. In this paper, solutions to the navigation and timing problems are proposed which enable the effective use of bistatic synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) concepts for the detection of buried objects in the mid-frequency regime of 2-20 kHz.     

Synthetic aperture sonar for seabed imaging: relative merits ofnarrow-band and wide-band approached

The advantages of using wideband sonar systems in underwater acoustical imaging by means of synthetic aperture (side-looking) sonars are described and illustrated through simulation examples. The simulations are conducted for two cases of sonar platform motion: perfect trajectory and disturbed trajectory. Several schemes used for wideband synthetic aperture processing are investigated and their relative merits (resolution and complexity) in the case of both disturbed and perfect trajectories are evaluated. Quantitative image evaluation is initially achieved through the evaluation of performance as regards resolution. The problems involved in the definition of the image quality are discussed     

Position Correction Using Echoes From a Navigation Fix for Synthetic Aperture Sonar Imaging

In synthetic aperture sonar (SAS), the platform position must be known sufficiently accurately for signals to be added coherently along the synthetic aperture. Often, the onboard navigation system is insufficiently accurate by itself, so corrections are needed. A well-known method is the displaced phase center antenna (DPCA) procedure for correcting platform position using seabed echoes. DPCA methods have the advantage of insensitivity to changing interference patterns, moving specular reflection, and changing occlusion, with aspect. However, when seabed echoes are unusable, either because they are too weak, or because they are corrupted by multipath, the seabed DCPA method may fail. Therefore, we present an alternative DPCA method using sonar echoes from a suitable navigation fix, based on an object detected after standard beamforming. In our proposed system, look angle is obtained by tracking the centroid of the rectified image of the fix object. When the standard DPCA correction equations are modified for a fixed reflector, it turns out that they provide incremental range and look-angle errors, precisely the values required when the target itself is used as the navigation fix. Moreover, the values obtained are then self-compensating for errors in estimating seabed depth or forward motion of the platform. The navigation fix is selected by bracketing in range, and beamforming overlapping subsets of the receiver array. In this paper, we present experimental results at transmitter frequencies of 25 and 100 kHz where our method enabled well-focused SAS images to be generated with little recourse to other navigation information. Hence, SAS can be carried out, even when a sophisticated inertial navigation system (INS) is not available.      

Ground-Truthing 11- to 12-kHz side-scan sonar imagery in the Norwegian–Greenland Sea: Part II: Probable diapirs on the Bear Island fan slide valley margins and the Vøring Plateau

SeaMARC II (11- to 12-kHz) side-scan sonar revealed hundreds of small strong-backscatter spots, tens to 500?m in diameter, along the lips of the Bear Island fan slide valley. New bathymetry, deep-tow side-scan, deep-tow profiles, heatflow, and gravity cores were collected for ground-truth. These mounds are probably mud diapirs (or mud-built mounds) typically 10–75?m high, formed by glacial sediment mobilized by Late Pleistocene slide events. The mounds are arranged along NNE trending lines, suggesting control by intrasedimentary faults ca. 0.5–1 km apart. Diapirs examined on the Vøring Plateau exhibit WNW structural control. No heatflow anomaly was found in four stations on or next to diapirs in either area.     

Interference fringes on GLORIA side-scan sonar images from the Bering Sea and their implications

GLORIA side-scan sonographs from the Bering Sea Basin show a complex pattern of interference fringes sub-parallel to the ship's track. Surveys along the same trackline made in 1986 and 1987 show nearly identical patterns. It is concluded from this that the interference patterns are caused by features in the shallow subsurface rather than in the water column. The fringes are interpreted as a thin-layer interference effect that occurs when some of the sound reaching the seafloor passes through it and is reflected off a subsurface layer. The backscattered sound interferes (constructively or desctructively) with the reflected sound. Constructive/destructive interference occurs when the difference in the length of the two soundpaths is a whole/half multiple of GLORIA's 25 cm wavelength. Thus as range from the ship increases, sound moves in and out of phase causing bands of greater and lesser intensity on the GLORIA sonograph. Fluctuations (or wiggles) of the fringes on the GLORIA sonographs relate to changes in layer thickness. In principle, a simple three dimensional image of the subsurface layer may be obtained using GLORIA and bathymetric data from adjacent (parallel) ship's tracks. These patterns have also been identified in images from two other systems; SeaMARC II (12 kHz) long-range sonar, and TOBI (30 kHz) deep-towed sonar. In these, and other cases world-wide, the fringes do not appear with the same persistence as those seen in the Bering Sea.     

Modes of development of slope canyons and their relation to channel and levee features on the Ebro sediment apron, off-shore northeastern Spain

Six submarine slope canyons in an area of the northwestern Mediterranean, offshore from the Ebro River and Delta, were surveyed with bathymetric swathmapping (SeaBeam) and mid-range side-looking sonar (SeaMARC I). All of the canyons have slightly winding paths with concave-upwards gradients that are relatively steep shallower than 1,200 m. Two major types of canyons are identified on the basis of their morphologic character at the base of the slope; Type-I canyons lead to an unchannelled base-of-slope deposit and Type-II canyons are continuous with channel-levee systems that cross the rise.Four Type-I canyons were surveyed in the area. Two of these are broad, U-shaped, steep (average gradients of 1:14), do not indent the shelf, and terminate downslope at debris-flow deposits. These two canyons, the most northern in the area, have rounded heads with extensive gullies separated by knife-edge ridges. Relief of the canyon walls is about equal on both sides of the canyons, although the right-hand walls (looking downslope) are generally steeper. The other two Type-I canyons in the area are similar in that they do not indent the shelf, but they are much smaller and shallower and coalesce before terminating in the base-of-slope region. The two Type-II canyons that feed leveed-channels are U-shaped with flatter floors, longer profiles and gentler gradients than Type-I canyons. They are closer to the Valencia Valley and have relatively small cross-sectional areas.We propose a four-stage evolutionary sequence to explain the development of the canyons observed in this section on the prograding Ebro margin. During the initial stage, slumping and erosion on the slope creates a network of small gullies. During the next stage, headward growth of one (or more) gully leads to a major indentation of the shelf. This is the critical factor for developing a channel that will incise the slope and provide a major conduit for moving sediment to the basin. Stage 3 is characterized by the development of a continuous channel accompanied by levee growth across the lobe. In the final stage, the channel-levee system becomes inactive either through destruction by mass wasting, infilling of the channel, or loss of the major sediment source.