High-resolution bathymetric simulations based on Kirchhoff scattering theory and anisotropic seafloor modeling

The bathymetric resolution of the seafloor map generated from multibeam or sidescan echo-sounder systems can be improved with various signal processing methods. In order to evaluate the accuracy and resolution performance of such techniques, the authors developed a realistic sonar simulation and seafloor modeling environment by merging the Kirchhoff scattering theory with the anisotropic seafloor parameterization of Goff and Jordan (1988). Multibeam sonar simulations utilizing the above environment, in combination with an eigenanalysis (e.g. MUSIC) power spectral estimation method for beamforming were carried out to obtain high-resolution bathymetry