High resolution bathymetric sidescan sonar

We have developed a high-resolution bathymetric sidescan sonar (HRBSSS). We suppose the sea bottom is modeled as a thin layer. And there is a phase error term at the phase of the space-time correlation function of the sonar array. This phase error term may be reduced by designing a sonar array suitably. Then the depth accuracy in the vicinity of the nadir is improved obviously. In the design of HRBSSS, we use the subspace-fitting techniques. HRBSSS can resolve the signals arriving from distinct directions concurrently, i.e. can resolve multiple angles-of-arrival in swath bathymetric imaging. HRBSSS has been equipped into an AUV and been tested in a deep lake in May 2001. From the data corrected by several sensors, fine-scale digital terrain maps are obtained. HRBSSS is especially suitable for deployment in AUV, HUV, ROV and towed bodies.