Development of a novel method for multibeam sonar backscatter calibration

在过去几十年中，海洋测绘技术的发展步伐加快，声纳技术的快速进步源于地理定位能力、计算机处理能力以及声纳硬件和软件设计的改进。然而，与采用和应用这些测绘技术有关的技术和科学挑战仍然很大，这阻碍了一些海洋部门行业的增长速度，这些行业可以受益于这些技术。一项重大挑战是获取和处理MBES后向散射数据(多波束声纳系统提供海底特征信息的声学测量)。质量定位服务公司(QPS)正在为此目的开发软件工具，但由于后向散射数据的未校准性质，以及不同声纳制造商提供的多波束声纳之间测量和记录后向散射信号的方式不一致，该公司正面临挑战。QP需要进行研究，以在该领域开发和测试新的背向散射校准方法，从中他们可以向其客户提供关于背向散射的现场校准/标准化的建议，并且还需要在其软件套件内开发用于后验MBE背向散射校准/校正的内部后处理工具。NSCC将在这一研究项目中与QPS合作，进行概念验证现场试验，以测试用于此目的的新的商业可用被动声纳反射技术。该项目将使QPS能够为这一应用评估这些被动声纳反射装置，并评估开发软件工具的可行性，以便利用来自校准地点的信息对后向散射数据集进行校正和处理。

The pace of development in ocean mapping technologies has accelerated over the past few decades, with rapid advancement in sonar technology stemming from improvements in geographic positioning capabilities, computer processing power, and sonar hardware and software design. Nevertheless, there are still significant technical and scientific challenges associated with the adoption and application of these mapping technologies, which is impeding the pace of growth of a number of ocean sector industries who could benefit from these technologies. One major challenge is the acquisition and processing of MBES backscatter data (an acoustic measurement from multibeam sonar systems providing information on seafloor characteristics). Quality Positioning Services BV (QPS) are developing software tools for this purpose, but are facing challenges due to the uncalibrated nature of the backscatter data, and inconsistencies in the way the backscatter signal is measured and recorded between multibeam sonars offered by different sonar manufacturers. QPS have a need to undertake research to develop and test novel backscatter calibration approaches in the field from which they can provide recommendation on in-field calibration/standardization of backscatter to their clients, and also develop post processing tools in-house within their software suite for posteriori MBES backscatter calibration/correction. NSCC will partner with QPS, in this research project to undertake a proof-of-concept field trial to test new, commercially available passive sonar reflection technologies for this purpose. The project will allow QPS to evaluate these passive sonar reflection devices for this application, and assess the feasibility of developing software tools for correction and processing of backscatter data sets using information from a calibration site.