Acoustic navigation - The untapped resource

Summary form only given. This paper reviews several applications of underwater sound to ship positioning and navigation. Applicable to the case are range-range systems, range hyperbolic systems and the special case of both the navigation along the congregate axis of the hyperbola. The case for harbor and coastal approach is examined and sonic methods for making a foul weather land fall is explained. Acoustic systems of the type described when employed in large vessels experience only a small degradation of signal to noise ratio as a result of bad weather. For operation within harbors, sonic methods of harbor marking and of collision avoidance are discussed.