Shallow Water Assessment of an Interferometric Phase Differencing Sonar

In the last few decades substantial efforts have been made to improve and facilitate the way hydrographic data is obtained. One technology is the EdgeTech 4600, an interferometric phase differencing sonar (IPDS). This system’s performance in shallow water was evaluated using three parameters: data density, standard deviation within cells, and feature size detection. The test site used in the study was a small channel in Port Everglades, Florida, USA, named the Dania Cut-Off Canal. The 540 kHz model of the EdgeTech 4600 system was chosen for the survey carried out on March 30th, 2011. The unit was deployed over the side of the research vessel, the Ocean Researcher II. Calibration data was obtained in the morning and the survey of the Dania Cut-Off Canal was performed in the afternoon. Hypack® was used to acquire, illustrate, and analyze the data utilizing its Survey and Hysweep Survey, MBMax, and Side Scan Targeting & Mosaicing programs. This paper presents the results for 1 m and 0.5 m cell sizes.