Design of synthetic aperture sonar systems for high-resolution seabed imaging (tutorial slides)

Abstract

This tutorial reviews the key aspects of the design of synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) systems for

high resolution seabed imaging. After a quick overview of the expected benefits and main

features of SAS, the design of the transmitter and receiver arrays is discussed, with emphasis on the mitigation of spatial aliasing with multi-element receiver arrays, wideband operation and extension to interferometric SAS for estimating the seabed bathymetry. The most difficult issue in SAS, which is the micronavigation problem, i.e. estimating the unwanted platform motions with the required sub-wavelength accuracy, will be addressed in detail. The emphasis is on methods that have proven their value at sea, which combine inertial navigation systems (INS) with data-driven methods based on the Displaced Phase Centre Antenna (DPCA) technique.