seafloorcharacterisationbasedoncombinedkeelmounted.docVIP

Seafloor characterization using keel-mounted sidescan: proper compensation for radiometric and geometric distortion. John E. Hughes Clarke Ocean Mapping Group, Dept. Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of New Brunswick Abstract Keel- mounted sidescan staves represent an efficient method of maintaining near-100% seafloor ensonification, even in very shallow (10m) coastal waters, as the swath width is defined by slant range rather than angular sector. Unlike towed sidescan systems, however, the aspect ratio varies strongly as the arrays are held fixed relative to the surface. As a result, the geometry of shadow casting, so critical in qualitative sidescan interpretation can vary rapidly providing apparent changes in the sidescan textural context that are unrelated to seafloor change. As the sidescan is rigidly mounted to the vessel, it suffers from the more pronounced yawing and rolling experienced by the surface vessel. At this time, the sidescan system deployed does not integrate orientation information. Therefore, that information from a simultaneous MBES system is used to provide improved geometric control. Particular problems include time synchronization between the MBES (locked to GPS time) and the sidescan clock (independent and with a drift). The use of high quality yaw can significantly improve target location but reveal the distortion of the scanning pattern making both mosaicing and spatial texture analysis more complicated. The roll information is critical in the proper correction for radiometric effects particularly if the backscatter angular response is needed. An automated method for extracting and mapping spatial frequency information from the corrected sidescan backscatter data is presented. By combining a number of discrete spatial frequency bins together with the corrected average backscatter strength, improved seabed classification is possible. Example data from a large scale (30 day) shallow water (av. depth 4m) survey in Ship