Accurate Acoustic Network Calibration Using the Global Positioning System

This paper describes the use of the Global Positioning System to determine the geodetic coordinates of a network of underwater acoustic transponders. Software was developed to integrate the global positioning system with an acoustic system for deployment and subsequent calibration of the network of transponders. A single least squares adjustment, combining all the observations was used to solve for the transponder coordinates. The velocity of sound in water was also determined from the observations. Finally some results of a recent survey are quoted.