Sediment-starved sand ridges on a mixed carbonate/siliciclastic inner shelf off west-central Florida

High-resolution side-scan mosaics, sediment analyses, and physical process data have revealed that the mixed carbonate/siliciclastic, inner shelf of west-central Florida supports a highly complex field of active sand ridges mantled by a hierarchy of bedforms. The sand ridges, mostly oriented obliquely to the shoreline trend, extend from 2 km to over 25 km offshore. They show many similarities to their well-known counterparts situated along the US Atlantic margin in that both increase in relief with increasing water depth, both are oriented obliquely to the coast, and both respond to modern shelf dynamics. There are significant differences in that the sand ridges on the west-central Florida shelf are smaller in all dimensions, have a relatively high carbonate content, and are separated by exposed rock surfaces. They are also shoreface-detached and are sediment-starved, thus stunting their development. Morphological details are highly distinctive and apparent in side-scan imagery due to the high acoustic contrast. The seafloor is active and not a relict system as indicated by: (1) relatively young AMS ¹⁴C dates (<1600 yr BP) from forams in the shallow subsurface (1.6 meters below seafloor), (2) apparent shifts in sharply distinctive grayscale boundaries seen in time-series side-scan mosaics, (3) maintenance of these sharp acoustic boundaries and development of small bedforms in an area of constant and extensive bioturbation, (4) sediment textural asymmetry indicative of selective transport across bedform topography, (5) morphological asymmetry of sand ridges and 2D dunes, and (6) current-meter data indicating that the critical threshold velocity for sediment transport is frequently exceeded. Although larger sand ridges are found along other portions of the west-central Florida inner shelf, these smaller sand ridges are best developed seaward of a major coastal headland, suggesting some genetic relationship. The headland may focus and accelerate the N–S reversing currents. An elevated rock terrace extending from the headland supports these ridges in a shallower water environment than the surrounding shelf, allowing them to be more easily influenced by currents and surface gravity waves. Tidal currents, storm-generated flows, and seasonally developed flows are shore-parallel and oriented obliquely to the NW–SE trending ridges, indicating that they have developed as described by the Huthnance model. Although inner shelf sand ridges have been extensively examined elsewhere, this study is the first to describe them in a low-energy, sediment-starved, dominantly mixed siliciclastic/carbonate sedimentary environment situated on a former limestone platform.     

Automatic Registration of TOBI Side-Scan Sonar and Multi-Beam Bathymetry Images for Improved Data Fusion

Deep towed side-scan sonar vehicles such as TOBI acquire high quality imagery of the seafloor with very high spatial resolution but poor locational accuracy. Fusion of the side-scan sonar data with bathymetry data from an independent source is often desirable to reduce ambiguity in geological interpretations, to aid in slant-range correction and to enhance seafloor representation. The main obstacle to fusion is accurate registration of the two datasets.The application of hierarchical chamfer matching to the registration of TOBI side-scan sonar images and multi-beam swath bathymetry is described. This matches low level features such as edges in the TOBI image, with corresponding features in a synthetic TOBI image created by simulating the flight of the TOBI vehicle through the bathymetry. The method is completely automatic, relatively fast and robust, and much easier than manual registration. It allows accurate positioning of the TOBI vehicle, enhancing its usefulness as a research tool. The method is illustrated by automatic registration of TOBI and multi-beam bathymetry data from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.     

声纳记录失真分析

从侧扫声纳的工作原理出发，分析了侧扫声纳记录声图产生基本失真的原因，推导出基本失真的数学公式，所得结论对实际作用有重要的指导意义。     

多波束声呐和侧扫声呐数据融合方法研究综述

多波束声呐系统与侧扫声呐系统均为海底面探测的重要工具,二者均采用声学方法,在工作原理上存在异同。本文简要介绍了二者的研究进展,分别对其数据处理进行了比对分析,认为多波束声呐处理方法侧重于数据的测量精度,而侧扫声呐则主要侧重于图像处理;归纳了当前二者主要的数据匹配融合方法,包括同名特征融合、基于SURF算法的匹配融合以及特征点融合,从数据采集原理上对数据融合方法进行了深入分析,发现在探头定位、单ping数据点分布以及ping之间的数据定位上存在一定的困难,即使经过一定的处理,二者采集的也非简单的平面图像,故二者的数据融合尚存在一定的难度。     

港珠澳大桥水下结构物的多手段探测

介绍了利用侧扫声纳、浅地层剖面仪和磁力仪开展港珠澳大桥水下结构物的探测方法和过程,并将探测的结果与调查收集的资料比较,分析水下结构物的分布情况,不同探测方法得出的结果也可以相互印证。     

国内外侧扫声纳测量标准比较研究

由于侧扫声纳应用领域不断扩大,用户要求不断提高,国际海道测量组织和世界测量技术发达国家相继发布了各自的新版测量规范和标准。本文将我国侧扫声纳现行测量标准与国际相关标准在系统探测能力、测线布设、数据采集、质量控制等方面进行比较详细的分析比较,指出了我国侧扫声纳测量规范在测线布设、数据采集要求等方面的不足,旨在推进我国测量标准尽快实现与国际接轨。     

声波探测技术在海底输油管道检测中的应用

介绍了多波束测深系统、侧扫声纳和浅地层剖面等声波探测技术的基本原理及在海底管道检测中常用设备与参数选择。结合工程实例给出了各种检测方法在海底输油管道检测中应用效果。介绍了海底管道检测流程,分析了各种检测方法的优缺点和不足之处。结果表明,海底管道检测时应充分利用各种方法的互补性,提高检测效率和准确性。     

Study of Methods for Three-Dimensional Multiple-Radar Reflectivity Mosaics

This paper investigated several approaches to remapping and combining multiple-radar reflectivity fields onto a unified 3D Cartesian grid with high spatial and temporal resolutions,and analyzed systematic ob servation differences among multiple radars.The remapping approaches were evaluated by inspecting the spatial consistency of the reflectivity fields on vertical and horizontal cross sections on the equidistant line of radars,and the intensity change of 1-h accumulated precipitation before and after interpolation.The com bining approaches were evaluated by continuity examination.The results show that for remapping schemes,the vertical interpolation with nearest neighbor on the range-azimuth plane is the most reasonable scheme that provides consecutive reflectivity fields and retains the high-resolution structure comparable to that of the raw data;for multiple-radar data mosaics,the distance-exponential-weighted mean scheme provides spatially consistent reflectivity mosaics.The mosaics call mitigate various problems caused by the radar beam geometry such as the cone of silence.     

Curvelet变换域侧扫声纳图像增强算法

针对海底侧扫声纳图像对比度低、纹理弱、噪声严重等问题,提出了一种基于第二代Curvelet变换的声纳图像增强算法。首先对原始声纳图像进行多尺度、多方向的Curvelet变换分解,得到低频子带和高频子带;然后引入非线性S型函数对低频系数进行处理,提高图像整体的对比度;采用一种可以避免过度增强的新型非线性函数对各尺度的高频子带系数进行处理,提高图像整体的对比度,增强图像边缘和纹理细节,并通过估计噪声水平设定阈值进行阈值降噪。最后经Curvelet逆变换得到增强图像。实验表明,该方法不仅改善了海底侧扫声纳图像对比度低的问题,而且降低了噪声,突出了声纳图像的边缘和纹理细节。