2023_programme: Synthesizing 3D UXO target response estimates from multiple scans using the buried object scanning sonar

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  • Session: 08. Munition Detection- Classification and Localization in the Marine Environment
    Organiser(s): David Bradley
  • Lecture: Synthesizing 3D UXO target response estimates from multiple scans using the buried object scanning sonar [invited]
    Paper ID: 1960
    Author(s): Marston Timothy, Williams Kevin, Kargl Steven, Espana Aubrey
    Presenter: Marston Timothy
    Abstract: The monostatic frequency and aspect dependent responses of unexploded ordnance (UXO) are often depicted as two-dimensional functions of frequency and angle (“acoustic color” plots). These two-dimensional representations, however, leverage approximations suitable only for situations in which strict assumptions about UXO and sonar orientations are valid. For down-looking sonars like the buried object scanning sonar (BOSS), which synthesize planar arrays, three-dimensional representations of target strength are both more accurate and more natural. In these types of systems, the relative positions of the array points in the synthetic aperture and location of the object of interest can be used to estimate an occupancy grid in wavenumber space corresponding to potential sample points of the three dimensional target strength of a UXO. Furthermore, scanning an object from multiple orientations allows these observations of target response to be combined to form a more complete representation of the object. Example 3D target strength estimates from survey operations performed during the 2021 and 2022 Multi-Sensor Towbody (MUST) technology demonstrations at Sequim Bay indicate that target response estimates synthesized from multiple scans improve the interpretability of the spectral features observed for the object, in addition to reducing speckle noise and improving the visibility of salient target features in the corresponding spatial-domain representation.
      Download the full paper
  • Corresponding author: Dr Timothy Marston
    Affiliation: The Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington
    Country: United States
    e-mail:

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