Digital Processing and Acoustic Backscattering Characteristics on the Seafloor Image by Side Scan Sonar

Side Scan Sonar 탐사자료의 영상처리와 해저면 Backscattering 음향특성

The digital data were obtained using Kennedy 9000 magnetic tape deck which was connected to the SMS960 side scan sonar during the field operations. The data of three consecutive survey tracks near Seongsan-po, Cheju were used for the development of this study. The softwares were mainly written in Fortran-77 using VAX 11/780 MINI-COMPUTER (CPU Memory; 4MB). The established mapping system consists of the pretreatment and the digital processing of seafloor image data. The pretreatment was necessary because the raw digital data format of the field magnetic tapes was not compatible to the VAX system. Therefore the raw data were read by the personal computer using the Assembler language and the data format was converted to IBM compatible, and next data were communicated to the VAX system. The digital processing includes geometrical correction for slant range, statistical analysis and cartography of the seafloor image. The sound speed in the water column was assumed 1,500 m/sec for the slant range correction and the moving average method was used for the signal trace smoothing. Histograms and cumulative curves were established for the statistical analysis, that was purposed to classify the backscattering strength from the sea-bottom. The seafloor image was displayed on the color screen of the TEKTRONIX 4113B terminal. According to the brief interpretation of the result image map, rocky and sedimentary bottoms were very well discriminated. Also it was shown that the backscattered acoustic pressurecorrelateswith the grain size and sorting of surface sediments.

SMS 960(Seafloor Mapping System) Side Scan Sonar에 자기테이프기록계 (Kennedy 900)를 연결하여 해저면 탐사자료를 수치적으로 처리할 수 있는 시스템을 개발, 이를 제주도 성산포 근해에서 시험적으로 적용하여 그 결과를 검토 하였다. 처리시스템은 주로 VAX 11/780 (4MB)를 사용하여 FORTRAN-77로 작성 되었으며 자료의 변환, 보정, 수치분석 및 도면제작 (cartography)을 주요기능으로 가지고 있다. SMS960에 의해 얻어진 수치자료는 특수한 형태를 가지고 있으므로 독자적으로 제작한 자료선별 계수기(Data Selecting Counter와 개인용 컴퓨터 personar computer을 사용하여 주처리 전산시스템에서 처리할 수 있도록 그 형태를 변환시켰으며, 경사거리(slant range)의 보정과 자료의 질적 개선을 위한 전처리 과 정을 거친 다음, 색상표현 으로 해저면 영상도면을 제작하였다. 후방산란 (backscattering) 음파자료를 통계처리하여 4가지 색상으로 제작된 영상도면을, 해저 퇴적물의 물성분포도와 비교해 본 결과 주로 평균입도와 분급도에 잘 대비되었다. 따라서 Side Scan Sonar에 의한 해저면 후 방상란 음향특성을 적절히 분석하므로 써 해저퇴적물의 퇴적상분포연구에 상당한 응용 효과가 있을 것으로 판단된다.