Analysis of 2-axis pencil beam sonar microbathymetric measurements of mine burial at the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory
Citable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/1636Location
Martha's Vineyard, MADOI
10.1575/1912/1636Keyword
Mines; Military explosives; SonarAbstract
The changing state of warfare has driven the US Navy's area of
operations closer to shore into littoral coastal waters. Mine Warfare has been
proven as an extremely effective means of battlespace control in these waters.
Mines can be inexpensively mass produced and rapidly deployed over large
areas. The most common type of mine in use is the bottom placed mine, an
object with simple geometry that sits on the seafloor. These mines often exhibit
scour induced burial below the seafloor, making detection through traditional
mine hunting methods difficult or impossible, while the mines themselves remain
lethal. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has developed a computer model
that predicts the extent of mine burial to aid mine hunting and mine clearing
operations. Investigations under ONR's Mine Burial Program are presently being
conducted to calibrate and validate this model.
This thesis uses data from the deployment of an acoustically instrumented
model mine near the Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory in part of a larger,
16 total object investigation. A 2-axis pencil beam sonar was deployed
concurrently with the mine to obtain microbathymetric measurements of the
scour pit development and the progression of mine burial. Data correction
techniques to correct for beam pattern induced bathymetry errors and a
transformed coordinate system are detailed within. An analysis of scour pit
dimensions includes scour depth, area, and volume as well as a look into percent
burial by depth as a characteristic measurement important for operational mine
hunting. The progression of mine burial is related to the wave climate, unsteady
flow hydrodynamic forcing, and bed-load transport. The analysis examines the
relative roles of these mechanisms in the scour-infill-bury process.
Description
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
Master of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution September 2005
Suggested Citation
Thesis: Gotowka, Brendan Reed, "Analysis of 2-axis pencil beam sonar microbathymetric measurements of mine burial at the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory", 2005-09, DOI:10.1575/1912/1636, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/1636Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
A code-division, multiple beam sonar imaging system
Richardson, John M. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1989-08)In this thesis, a new active sonar imaging concept is explored using the principle of code-division and the simultaneous transmission of multiple coded signals. The signals are sixteen symbol, four-bit, non-linear, block ... -
Dense, sonar-based reconstruction of underwater scenes
Vaz Teixeira, Pedro Nuno (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2019-09)Three-dimensional maps of underwater scenes are critical to—or the desired end product of—many applications, spanning a spectrum of spatial scales. Examples range from inspection of subsea infrastructure to hydrographic ... -
Human factors engineering in sonar visual displays
Galvin, Lawrence F. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1991-08)Undersea technology is on the verge of equipping remotely operated vehicle (ROV) pilots with a three-dimensional (3-D), real-time display incorporating data from a wide variety of sensors including sonar (sound navigation ...