Calibration of high frequency imaging deformable towed arrays

Using synthetic aperture arrays or flexible towed arrays for side scan sonar high frequency imaging may improve performance. Both systems are characterized by an uncertainty on sensors positions. The author presents a way to treat the array shape recovering problem for those applications. Required specifications for synthetic aperture sonar and towed array sonar are compared. The tolerances on shape distortions are considered for array calibration. Ways to calibrate the distorted towed arrays, in order to ensure well-focussed imaging, are described. Calibration and self-calibration methods are presented