Seafloor Roughness Measured by a Laser Line Scanner and a Conductivity Probe

To support modeling acoustic backscatter from the seafloor, a conductivity probe and a laser line scanner were deployed jointly to measure bottom roughness during an experiment off the New Jersey coast in summer 2006. The conductivity probe in situ measurement of porosity (IMP2) is impervious to water turbidity and yields a 1-D profile with 10-mm horizontal spacing and 1-mm resolution in the vertical direction. The laser line scanner is limited by water visibility but it provides 2-D grid points with resolutions 0.3 mm across track, 0.5 mm along track, and 0.3 mm in the vertical direction. Two sets of data, suitable to model mid- to high-frequency acoustic backscatter, were collected from two sites 900 m apart on August 14 and 17, 2006. The roughness spectra obtained from the laser scanning were compared to those measured by the IMP2. The spectra from the two methods are consistent over wave number range 0.0188–3 rad/cm, which are the wave number range common to both methods. The efficacy of the laser scanner is also confirmed by showing the spectral line created by the IMP2's periodic probing marks. The 2-D spectra generated from the laser scan data show that the bottom roughness at these sites is azimuthally isotropic, but significant spatial heterogeneity is observed.