Additional characteristics of synthetic-aperture sonar systems and a further comparison with nonsynthetic-aperture sonar systems

Abstract

In a previous paper some performance characteristics achievable using sythetic-aperture sonars were compared with those achievable using more conventional techniques. In this paper additional characteristics of both types of sonars are derived and compared especially with respect to average power, number of beams required, and area-coverage rate achievable as the resolution and sonar speed are varied. As in the previous paper identical specifications and geometries are imposed upon the two system types in making the comparison. The only system parameters which may need to be different are frequency and horizontal aperture length. These then lead to different values for average power required to achieve the desired signal-to-noise ratio.