 |
Synthetic Aperture Sonar.
The HMRG engineering team,
led by Mark Rognstad, with industry
partner Raytheon Systems and funding from the Center of Excellence for Research
in Ocean Science (CEROS) is developing a
synthetic aperture sonar system. It is designed to combine bottom penetrating
12 kHz sound with the enhanced resolution of synthetic aperture signal processing. Towed behind a ship, it has demonstrated the capability of imaging objects buried as much as a meter deep in sand, over a swath extending 20 meters away from the tow vehicle. Potential applications include marine archeology and unexploded ordinance detection.
|
 |
HAWAII MR1/MR2.
The HIGP Acoustic Wide Angle Imaging Instrument, Mapping Researcher 1
(HAWAII MR1),
also built by HMRG , is the first seafloor mapping sonar to implement all digital signal processing. The photograph depicts one of the MR1 digital signal processor/programmable gate array boards, sitting on top of the box of boards that it functionally replaced from the first generation SeaMARC II sonar. It has been used extensively for geophysical mapping, communications cable surveying, fisheries research, and locating the WW2 aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. An improved version known as MR2, with the capability of beam steering and shaping,
as well as transmit pulse encoding, is now under construction.
|
For more information on instrument development at HIGP contact:
Margo Edwards, or
Mark Rognstad.
Text and images courtesy Mark Rognstad.
|
|
