Prediction of tidal water currents from active sonar tracks

Ambient returns from active sonars may contain information that describes in situ environmental characteristics of the ensonified water column. This study seeks to apply Harmonic Analysis in a novel way to derive information about water current flows from the heading and velocity of active sonar tracks. It is hypothesized that tidal current patterns may be extracted from the movement of tracks by applying the appropriate set of harmonic tidal constituents. The technique is tested with data from a sonar installation in an inlet of the Chesapeake Bay estuary. The results suggest that sonar tracks can be used to predict the direction and timing of flood and ebb events over time but lower correlations were found between the model and measured water current velocities.