Methods for increasing the azimuth resolution and mapping rate of a synthetic aperture sonar

It has been shown that the synthetic aperture technique can be used to improve the resolution of side looking sonar systems. However, since mapping rate is inversely proportional to resolution, this improved resolution results in a decreased mapping rate. Ideally, the authors would like to increase the resolution without a proportional decrease in mapping rate, and so this paper will draw together techniques for increasing the mapping rate top resolution ratio. There have been many techniques previously suggested in the literature for improving either mapping rate or resolution, and these will be discussed in this paper. Those techniques most applicable to the ACID sonar will be investigated and the results compared with those from other investigators