Sonar is used to find objects on the bottom of the ocean.

Side scan sonar is one method used to look at the

detail of the ocean floor. Side scan sonar instruments are towed behind ships and often called towfish or tow
vehicles (shown below).

Photo
courtesy
of Klein
Associates
,
www.klein
sonar.com.

Pulsed signals are transmitted from each side of the tow vehicle and reflected back from the bottom and objects
on the seafloor. The sonar signal is concentrated in narrow beams on both sides of the tow vehicle (See the
diagram below).

The the
bottom
figure
(black and
white)
shows the
display
anoperator
would see.
It is a plot
of the
reflectivity

of the
seafloor
and any
objects on
the
seafloor.
Diagram
courtesy
of USGS
Seafloor
Mapping
Technolog
y group,
woodshole
.er.usgs.go
v/operatio
ns/sfmappi
ng.

Some of the sound sent out by the side scan sonar reflects off the seafloor and returns to the tow vehicle. The
tow vehicle has sensitive hydrophones(also called receivers) which receive the returning sound. The signals
from the hydrophone are sent to the ship for processing and an image is made showing the strength of the
returned sound over the area the tow vehicle was sending the sound. The signal is often sent to a graphic
recorder which makes an image. The darker parts or the image represent greater echo strength.
The image below shows a typical side scan sonar trace. The middle of the image is the path of the tow vehicle.
There is a black line (or two black lines) right in the middle of the image. This is actually the sound pulse sent out
from the instrument which is immediately heard by the hydrophone on the instrument. The blank white space,
moving out from the black lines, is the time it takes the sound to travel through the water. The first echo from the
seafloor (or sometimes from the sea surface) is the next mark. Then echos from the seafloor and objects at
greater and greater distances from the tow vehicle.

The
patterns
on the
seafloor in
this image
are iceberg
scour
marks in
the
Beaufort
Sea. Photo
courtesy
of Klein
Associates
,
www.klein
sonar.com.

Side scan sonar is very sensitive and can measure features on the ocean bottom smaller than 1 centimeter (less
than 1/2 an inch). Typical uses of side scan sonar include: looking for objects on the seafloor (sunken ships,

pipelines, downed aircraft, lost cargo), detailed mapping of the seafloor, investigation of seafloor properties (grain
size, etc) and looking at special features on the seafloor like underwater volcanos.
When the sound sent by a sonar reaches the seafloor several things can happen to that sound. Some of the
sound may be absorbed by the seafloor. Some of the sound is almost always reflected . There are several
different ways the sound can reflect. The sound can be directly back or it can bescattered in many different
directions (see the diagram below). Sound that is scattered back toward the tow vehicle is called backscatter.

How much scattering, backscattering and absorption happens depends on the properties of the seafloor. Hard
materials, like rocks, will scatter more sound while soft materials, like mud, will absorb more sound. Different
amounts of scattering produces different amounts of sound returning to the tow vehicle and a different image of
the seafloor.
The images below show some examples of how one property of the sea floor (grain size) affects the side scan
sonar image.

Images by
David C.
Twichell
(USGS),
from:
Twichell,
D.C.,
Cross, V.,
and
Parolski,
K.F.,
2000, U.S.
Geological
Survey
Open-File
Report 00167, 26
pp.

The image above shows a side scan sonar image on the left. On the right are two samples taken from areas in
the side scan sonar image. The fine sand is darker in the image because more energy is reflected back from the
uniform grain size. The gravel is lighter in th image because the gravel scatters more of the sound and less
reflects back to the side scan instrument.

Side scan sonar is often used to find objects like shipwrecks on the seafloor. The image below is of the Empire
Knight, a British cargo vessel, that sank off Boon Island, Me in 1944. The ship is located in the bottom part of the
image. The shadow of the ship can be seen in the upper part of the image.

The
shipwreck
of the
Empire
Knight.
Photo
courtesy
of Klein
Associates
,
www.klein
sonar.com.

Features on the seafloor create shadows in the side scan sonar images because of the geometry of the sound
source and the object. The drawing below illustrates how a shadow forms.

The side scan sonar sends out the sound. The sound will reflect off the object back to the instrument. But the
object also "shades" part of the seafloor from the sound. No sound will reach the seafloor behind the object. This
will produce a shadow on the side scan sonar image. The shadow will be white. The shadow is black in the
image of the ship above because the color has been reversed to highlight the ship.

Ulasan :
Sonar digunakan untuk menemukan objek pada dasar laut. Secara umum, sonar adalah
sebuah sinyal yang dipacarkan dari kapal menuju dasar laut dan sinyal tersebut yang sudah
terkena objek dasar laut akan dikembalikan kepada sebuah receiver pada kapal. Ketika
sebuah sinyal sonar dipancarkan dan mencapai dasar laut, beberapa suara akan diserap dan
yang lainnya akan dipantulkan. Namun beberapa suara akan disebar kemana-mana. Material
yang keras seperti batuan akan menyebarkan banyak sinyal dibandingkan dengan material
yang lunak seperti lumpur yang akan menyerap suara. Dalam menggunakan sonar, terdapat
berbagai macam metoda dan salah satunya adalah Side Scan Sonar.
Side Scan Sonar adalah sebuah metoda yang dapat digunakan untuk mendapatkan detail dari
dasar laut. Instrumen ini diseret di belakang kapal. Side Scan Sonar sangat sensitif dan
mampu mengukur detail dasar laut dengan akurat (lebih kecil dari 1 cm) dan biasanya
digunakan untuk mencari objek pada dasar laut (pipa, kargo yang hilang, kapal yang karam,
dan sebagainya), peta batimetri laut, investigasi tentang keadaan dasar laut (ukuran pasir,
batuan dan sebagainya), serta untuk melihat hal spesial yang ada di dalam laut seperti gunung
api bawah laut, palung besar, dan lainnya.
Side Scan Sonar memancarkan sinyal sonar ke dasar laut dan sinyal tersebut kembali ke
sebuah hidrofon (receiver) yang sangat senstitif pada mesin penyeret. Sinyal yang diterima
langsung dikirimkan pada kapal untuk diolah menjadi gambar yang menunjukkan keadaan
dasar laut. Gambar tersebut dibuat berdasarkan kuat lemahnya sinyal yang diterima pada
hidrofon. Semakin gelap gambar yang dibuat maka semakin kuat sinyal yang diterima oleh
hidrofon. Dengan menggunakan metoda Side Scan Sonar, dapat dipastikan bahwa gambar
yang dibuat merupakan keadaan nyata yang sangat akurat mengenai kondisi dasar laut
dengan objek-objeknya yang ada di sana.