An Introduction to the Underwater Survey Operations using a Side Scan Sonar System

천해역 해저탐사 및 영상분석 기법 소개

Recently, side scan sonar system has been developed and operated to survey cable laying, sunken bodies, geometry of sea bottom and so on. It uses the acoustic signals, which are emitted from two transducer arrays, left and right sides, to get geometric information of the specified area. This system consists of transceiver board, towed body, deck unit and GPS receiver. The transceiver board, nested in a watertight canister, controls the transmitting and receiving of the acoustic pulses from transducer arrays. After receiving the scattered signals, it processes BP(Band Pass) filtering, AGC(Automatic Gain Control), TVG(Time Varying Gain) and Heterodyne. The deck init has the signal processing part, A/D converter, power supplier, and real-time monitoring part. The towed body has been designed to satisfy the optimal hydrodynamic behavior during towing, In this paper, brief introductions on the design theory of transceiving part and some results from the field which have been operated recently will be introduced.