Initial study on the visualization of physical structures in the ocean utilizing the water column imaging of multibeam echo sounders.
Modern multibeam echo sounders have come to be capable of recording entire underwater echo profiles. The multibeam water column imaging discovers the spatial and temporal distribution of acoustic scatterers in water mass, potentially providing essential information to elucidate dynamic processes occurring inside the ocean. This technical report considers a processing method to highlight characteristic acoustic patterns that result from oceanographic phenomena and applies the technique to data obtained by the typical Mills-cross echo sounders. The result shows distinctive mid-water acoustic anomalies of laminar and periodical patterns. The laminar pattern shows abrupt vertical changes in the echo intensity, which might correlate with the seawater profile obtained by XCTD. The periodical pattern exhibits a train of intertwined waves resembling shear instability like the Kelvin-Helmholtz billow. The result suggests the ability of multibeam echo sounders to visualize pycnocline in the water column, which would further advance physical oceanographic study in terms of analyzing the 3-dimensional spatial distribution of midwater acoustic scatterers.
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Contribution biblioteca |
| Language: | Japanese |
| Published: |
2023
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1834/42587 |
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| Summary: | Modern multibeam echo sounders have come to be capable of recording entire underwater echo profiles. The multibeam water column imaging discovers the spatial and temporal distribution of acoustic scatterers in water mass, potentially providing essential information to elucidate dynamic processes occurring inside the ocean. This technical report considers a processing method to highlight characteristic acoustic patterns that result from oceanographic phenomena and applies the technique to data obtained by the typical Mills-cross echo sounders. The result shows distinctive mid-water acoustic anomalies of laminar and periodical patterns. The laminar pattern shows abrupt vertical changes in the echo intensity, which might correlate with the seawater profile obtained by XCTD. The periodical pattern exhibits a train of intertwined waves resembling shear instability like the Kelvin-Helmholtz billow. The result suggests the ability of multibeam echo sounders to visualize pycnocline in the water column, which would further advance physical oceanographic study in terms of analyzing the 3-dimensional spatial distribution of midwater acoustic scatterers. |
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