Deep towed sidescan sonars

The advantages of collecting seafloor imagery and bathymetry from a deep towed full ocean depth sidescan sonar system are becoming widely appreciated. The number of systems in active use in the scientific, government and commercial communities has more than doubled in the last five years. New improvements include multi-frequency, chirp, integral swath bathymetry, fiber-optic cable, improved speeds and greatly improved image processing. Countries with organizations operating these sonars include the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia and France. This paper describes the operating procedures for deep towed sidescan sonars, briefly describes and compares the various systems, and discusses the new improvements. The major operations for some of the systems are highlighted and emerging market areas explored