Multibeam echosounder
type of sonar that is used to map the seabed
A multibeam echosounder (MBES) is a type of sonar that is used to map the seabed. It emits acoustic waves in a fan shape beneath its transceiver. The time it takes for the sound waves to reflect off the seabed and return to the receiver is used to calculate the water depth. Unlike other sonars and echo sounders, MBES uses beamforming to extract directional information from the returning soundwaves, producing a swathe of depth soundings from a single ping.
History and progression
Multibeam sonar sounding systems, also known as swathe (British English) or swath (American English) , originated for military applications. The concept originated in a radar system that was intended for the Lockheed U-2 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, but the project was derailed when the aircraft flown by Gary Powers was brought down by a Soviet missile in May 1960. A proposal for using the "Mills Cross" beamforming technique adapted for use with bottom mapping sonar was made to the US Navy. Data from each ping of the sonar would be automatically processed, making corrections for ship motion and transducer depth sound velocity and refraction effects, but at the time there was insufficient digital data storage capacity, so the data would be converted into a depth contour strip map and stored on continuous film. The Sonar Array Sounding System (SASS) was developed in the early 1960s by the US Navy, in conjunction with General Instrument to map large swathes of the ocean floor to assist the underwater navigation of its submarine force. SASS was tested aboard the USS Compass Island (AG-153).
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