A free-floating, steerable, HF sonar for environmental measurements

Author

Hines, Paul C. ; Hutton, J.S. ; Collier, Arthur J.

Author_Institution

Defence Res. Establ. Atlantic, Dartmouth, NS, Canada

fYear

1993

fDate

18-21 Oct 1993

Abstract

Defence Research Establishment Atlantic is developing a free-floating HF sonar for collecting environmental acoustic data in the open ocean. The sonar is designed to operate in the band 20-40 kHz with a beamwidth of 0.1 steradians. Its maximum operating depth is 300 m. A 462 MHz RF command link is used to steer the array to any combination of azimuth and tilt angle. This facilitates measurements of directional ambient noise as well as surface and bottom backscatter as a function of grazing angle. Along with control over azimuth and tilt angle, the sonar is instrumented to monitor depth, roll and vertical acceleration. Data transmission back to the ship is accomplished via a 2.37 GHz RF data link capable of a data transfer rate of up to 8 Mbits/sec. In this paper, the electrical, mechanical, and acoustic design of the array is presented

Keywords

oceanographic equipment; oceanographic techniques; sonar; telemetering systems; underwater sound; 20 to 40 kHz; DREA; HF sonar; acoustic design; acoustic measurement; acoustic noise; acoustic telemetry; bottom backscatter; command link; data transmission; directional ambient noise; electrical; free-floating; grazing angle; mechanical; ocean sea sonar; steerable,; surface scatter; technique; ultrasonic link; underwater sound equipment; Acoustic measurements; Azimuth; Goniometers; Hafnium; Noise measurement; Oceans; Radio frequency; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Sonar measurements;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

OCEANS '93. Engineering in Harmony with Ocean. Proceedings

Conference_Location

Victoria, BC

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1385-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OCEANS.1993.326068

Filename

326068