Using Sonar To Map The Ocean Floor

Sonar single beam.

Using sonar to map the ocean floor.

The technique first used by german scientists in the early 20th century uses sound waves bounced off the ocean bottom. Mapping techniques have improved over time but only the use of sound sonar has permitted large scale high resolution seafloor measurements. Second the data is projected to the sea floor. This is achieved by explicitly taking into account the sss operation as follows.

The first modern breakthrough in sea floor mapping came with the use of underwater sound projectors called sonar which was first used in world war i. There are three tools used to map the ocean floor sonar satellites and submersibles. By the 1920s the coast and geodetic survey an ancestor of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration s national ocean service was using sonar to map deep water. First the raw sensor data is corrected by means of a physics based sss model.

Noaa scientists primarily use sonar to develop nautical charts locate underwater hazards to navigation search for and map objects on the sea floor such as shipwrecks and map the sea floor itself. Sonar short for sound navigation and ranging is helpful for exploring and mapping the ocean because sound waves travel farther in the water than do radar and light waves. Tools used to map the ocean floor today s technology lets scientists to study the ocean in a quicker and precise way. The goal of this study is to generate high resolution sea floor maps using a side scan sonar sss.