Synthetic-aperture sonar

Synthetic-aperture sonar (SAS) is a form of sonar in which sophisticated post-processing of sonar data is used in ways closely analogous to synthetic-aperture radar.

Synthetic-aperture sonars combine a number of acoustic pings to form an image with much higher along-track resolution than conventional sonars. The along-track resolution can approach half the length of one sonar element, though is downward limited by 1/4 wavelength.^[1]

The principle of synthetic-aperture sonar is to move the sonar while illuminating the same spot on the sea floor with several pings. When moving along a straight line, those pings that have the image position within the beamwidth constitute the synthetic array. By coherent reorganization of the data from all the pings, a synthetic-aperture image is produced with improved along-track resolution. In contrast to conventional side-scan sonar (SSS), SAS processing provides range-independent along-track resolution. At maximum range the resolution can be magnitudes better than that of side-scan sonars.^[2]

A 2013 technology review^[3] with examples and future trends is also available. For academics, the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering article: Synthetic Aperture Sonar, A Review of Current Status^[4] gives an overview of the history and an extensive list of references for the community achievements up to 2009.

The length of the synthetic aperture is

${\displaystyle L_{sa}\approx R\eta {\frac {\lambda }{d}}}$

Where R is the range, ${\displaystyle \lambda }$ is the wavelength at center frequency and d is the along-track element size in the array. ${\displaystyle \eta }$ is a programmable parameter which controls the process beamwidth—the beamwidth actually processed.^[1]