Abstract. Side scan sonar (SSS) is an important mapping tool in underwear imaging system. This paper provides sufficient information on SSS design. SSS is known for very high quality, high resolution, ocean bottom imaging. It is able to rapidly survey large ocean areas for bottom and suspended sea-mines or other kinds of threats. Another operational aspect of these systems is that they allow autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to conduct operations, mostly in shallow water and near land. It produces a representation in image form of the seabed; however, no closed form analytic expression or direct modeling technique exists to represent this complex process. In this paper the basic principle is presented for a model for the simulation of SSS, which produces as its output a qualitative image of the form generated by the actual SSS. The model considers the underlying physical processes including the effects of the refractive water medium, the scattering from the seabed and the transducer motion and directivity characteristics. Further, this work concerns the design and analysis of SSS via MATLAB simulation in order to satisfy the operational requirements. Moreover, this research has tried to indicate the various problems that may arise when a SSS operates in its near-field region and suggests certain solutions. The active sonar equation and its factors were explained and were evaluated.

Received: March 7, 2013

AMS Subject Classification: 37N10, 86A05

Key Words and Phrases: sonar, mapping, analytic signal

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