Sea Floor Sediment Mapping from Multibeam Sonar: SediMap (registered trademark)

NRLs Marine Geosciences Division has developed a capability SediMap to characterize the sediment on the sea floor using the acoustic backscatter information from multibeam bathymetric sonars. Sea floor properties play an important role in mine warfare and antisubmarine warfare, as well as in nonmilitary applications, such as laying communication cables along the ocean floor. Of particular interest is the ability to distinguish between mud, fine sand, coarse sand, and gravel or rock. Ocean-survey operations use multibeam sonars to acquire acoustic data for measuring water depth bathymetry worldwide. These sonars also measure acoustic backscatter from many incident angles with respect to the sea floor. Since the angular response of the backscatter largely depends on the type of sediment on the sea floor sediment, this same data also provides a means to classify the ocean bottom.