investigation of the influence of surface roughness on reflection coefficients measured by a chirp sonar using a laser profiling of the seafloor

This research investigates the validity of an acoustic propagation model by comparing theoretical reflection coefficients, function of frequency, to FAU chirp sonar measurements (chirp sub-bottom profiler). An acoustic model has been implemented to estimate the spectrum of energy reflected from sandy sediments in the presence of surface scattering. The surface roughness being the dominant reverberation part, the volume scattering has been neglected in this model. A laser scanning system involving an image-processing algorithm has been designed to measure the seafloor bottom roughness using 1D Fourier transforms. In the case of anisotropic roughness, an estimation of the sand ripples dominant direction is provided involving 2D Fourier transforms. Measurements of acoustic data using a chirp sonar and estimation of bottom roughness from video data of the scanner over an artificial bottom are provided to compare the reflection coefficients obtained from the data actually measured with those from the acoustical model.