Radar & Sonar

Christopher Avance Maverick Castro Sarabeth Sarita Maricor Valencia ECE5A

Radar
RADAR is a system used to detect, range (determine the distance of), and map objects such as aircraft, ships, and rain, that was first suggested as a "ship finder" by Dr.

Allen B. DuMont in 1932. Coined in 1941 as an acronym for Radio Detection and Ranging, it has since entered the English language as a standard word, losing the capitalization in the process.

History
In 1922, Marconi announced that he had noticed the reflection of radio waves by objects many miles away. As a result, he predicted that radio waves could be used to detect objects at great distances. During that same year, two American scientists working at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., A. Hoyt Taylor and Leo C. Young also recognized the principles of reflected radio waves. Between 1922 and 1930, they conducted further tests which proved the military value of these principles by detecting objects hidden by smoke, fog, or darkness. This was the beginning of radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging) as we know it today.

Basic Functions
Since World War II, radar development, both by military and commercial laboratories, has progressed so rapidly that today radar has unlimited uses. Commercially, radar is being used for safety and navigation in aircraft and large and small ships, for tracking aircraft and controlling aircraft landings, for

detecting and tracking weather, and for tracking tiny satellites in the vast regions of outer space. Practically all Navy ships now have complex radar systems. Detection: determining whether or not an object is present in the vicinity of the radar sensor
Ranging: reporting the linear radial distance from the radar sensor to a detected object Relative Range Rate (aka Relative Radial Velocity): reporting changes in range of detected

objects as a function of time

Advanced Functions:

Positioning: determining the location of an object with respect to the radar in terms of

range and direction

Tracking: the ability to uniquely identify detected objects and maintain a time-history of

their position (implemented as a control algorithm in the processor which may/may not affect actual radar operations-for example, antenna control)

Principles of Radar

The principles upon which radar operates are very similar to the principles of sound-wave reflection. Radar is an application of radio wave principles. It is possible to detect the presence of objects, to determine their direction and range, and to recognize their character. Detection involves directing a beam of radio-frequency waves over a region to be searched. When the beam strikes a reflecting object, some the beams energy is reflected. A very small part of this reflected energy is returned to the radar system. A sensitive receiver, located near the transmitter, detects the echo signal and causes it to be presented visually on a viewing scope. The radar system can determine direction (bearing) and range because the receiving system can be made directional and can make extremely small time measurements.

Radar Echo

Essential Components
Radar systems may vary greatly in design. Depending on data requirements, they may be simple or complex. But, the principles of operation are essentially the same for all systems. Therefore, we can use a basic radar system to demonstrate the functional performance of any radar system. A basic pulsemodulate radar system consist essential components. These components are as follows:

Block Diagram of Fundamental Radar System

Modulator The modulator produces the signals that trigger the transmitter the required number of times per second. The modulator also triggers the indicator sweep and coordinates the other associated circuits. Transmitter The transmitter generates radio frequency (RF) energy in the form of short, powerful pulses. Duplexer The duplexer permits the use of a common transmission line and a single antenna for both transmitting and receiving. Antenna System The antenna system takes the RF energy from the transmitter and radiates it in a highly directional beam. The antenna system also receives any returning echoes and passes them to the receiver. Receiver The receiver amplifies the weak returning echoes and produces them as video pulses to be applied to the indicator. Indicator

The indicator produces a visual trace of the area being searched by the radar and accurately displays the returning video echo on this trace. Power Supply The power supply (not shown) furnishes all of the dc and ac voltages necessary for the operation of the system components.

Terms
Radio Waves
Powerful radio waves are transmitted, and a receiver listens for any echoes. By analyzing the reflected signal, the reflector can be located, and sometimes identified. Although the amount of signal returned is tiny, radio signals can easily be detected and amplified. Radar radio waves can be easily generated at any desired strength, detected at even tiny powers, and then amplified many times. Thus radar is suited to detecting objects at very large ranges where other reflections, like sound or visible light, would be too weak to detect. Radio waves can propagate with less attenuation than light in many conditions such as through clouds, fog, and smoke, enabling detection and tracking in such conditions. Radio frequency (RF) waves travel through space at the speed of light 186,000 statute miles per second.

Reflection
The extent to which an object reflects or scatters radio waves is called its radar cross section.

Brightness can indicate reflectivity as in this 1960 weather radar image. The radar's frequency, polarization, and receiver determine what it can observe. Electromagnetic waves reflect (scatter) from any large change in the dielectric or diamagnetic constants. This means that a solid object in air or vacuum, or other significant change in atomic density between object and what's surrounding it, will

usually scatter radar (radio) waves. This is particularly true for electrically conductive materials such as metal and carbon fiber, making radar particularly well suited to the detection of aircraft and ships. Radar absorbing material, containing resistive and sometimes magnetic substances, is used on military vehicles to reduce radar reflection. This is the radio equivalent of painting something a dark color. Radar waves scatter in a variety of ways depending on the size (wavelength) of the radio wave and the shape of the target. If the wavelength is much shorter than the target's size, the wave will bounce off in a way similar to the way light bounces from a mirror. If the wavelength is much longer than the size of the target, the target is polarized, like a dipole antenna. This is described by Rayleigh Scattering (like the blue sky). When the two length scales are comparable, there may be resonances. Early radars used very long wavelengths that were larger than the targets and received a vague signal, whereas some modern systems use shorter wavelengths (a few centimeters or shorter) that can image objects as small as a loaf of bread or smaller.

Polarization
In the transmitted radar signal, the electric field is perpendicular to the direction of propagation, and this direction of the electric field is the Polarization of the wave. Radars use horizontal, vertical, and circular polarization to detect different types of reflections. For example, circular polarization is used to minimize the interference caused by rain. Linear polarization returns usually indicate metal surfaces, and help search radar ignore rain. Random polarization returns usually indicate a fractal surface like rock or dirt, and are used by navigational radars.

Interference
Radar systems must overcome several different sources of unwanted signals in order to focus only on the actual targets of interest. These unwanted signals may originate from internal and external sources, both passive and active. The ability of the radar system to overcome these unwanted signals defines its signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) - the higher a system's SNR, the better it is in isolating actual targets from the surrounding noise signals.

Noise
Noise typically appears as random variations superimposed on the desired echo signal received in the radar receiver. The lower the power of the desired signal, the more difficult it is to discern it from the noise. Noise is also generated by external sources, most importantly the natural thermal radiation of the background scene surrounding the target of interest. In modern radar systems, due to the high performance of their receivers, the internal noise is typically about equal to or lowers than the external scene noise. An exception is if the radar is aimed upwards at clear sky, where the scene is so cold that it generates very little thermal noise.

Clutter
Clutter refers to actual radio frequency (RF) echoes returned from targets which are by definition uninteresting to the radar operators in general. Such targets mostly include natural objects such as ground, sea, rain/snow/hail and other precipitation forms, sand storms, animals (esp. birds), atmospheric turbulences, and other atmospheric effects (ionosphere reflections, meteor trails etc.). Clutter may also be returned from man-made objects such as buildings. It should be noted that while some clutter sources may be undesirable for some radar applications (e.g., storm clouds for air-defense radars), they may be desirable for others (meteorological radars in this example). Clutter is considered a passive interference source, since it only appears in response to radar signals sent by the radar. Radar multipath echoes from an actual target cause ghosts to appear. Clutter may also originate from multipath echoes from valid targets due to ground reflection, atmospheric ducting or ionospheric reflection/refraction. This specific clutter type is especially bothersome, since it appears to move and behave like another normal (point) targets of interest, thereby creating a ghost. In a typical scenario, an aircraft echo is multipath-reflected from the ground below, appearing to the receiver as an identical target below the correct one. The radar may try to unify the targets, reporting the target at an incorrect height, or worse - eliminating it on the basis of jitter or a physical impossibility. These problems can be overcome by incorporating a ground map of the radar's surroundings and eliminating all echoes which appear to originate below ground or above a certain height.

Jamming
Radar jamming refers to RF signals originating from sources outside the radar, transmitting in the radar's frequency and thereby masking targets of interest. Jamming may be intentional (as an anti-radar electronic warfare (EW) tactic) or unintentional (e.g., by friendly forces operating equipment that transmits using the same frequency range). Jamming is considered an active interference source, since it is initiated by elements outside the radar and in general unrelated to the radar signals.

Measurements
1. Distance measurement

a) Transit time
Principle of radar distance measurement using pulse round trip time The easiest way to measure the range of an object is to broadcast a short pulse of radio signal, and then evaluate the time it takes for the reflection to return. The distance is one-half the product of round trip time (because the signal has to travel to the target and then back to the receiver) and the speed of the signal.

where: c = is the speed of light in a vacuum = is the round trip time Note: For radar the speed of signal is the speed of light, making the round trip times very short for terrestrial ranging

b) Frequency modulation
Another form of distance measuring radar is based on frequency modulation. Frequency comparison between two signals is considerably more accurate, even with older electronics, than timing the signal. By changing the frequency of the returned signal and comparing that with the original, the difference can be easily measured. This technique can be used in radar systems, and is often found in aircraft radar altimeters. In these systems a "carrier" radar signal is frequency modulated in a predictable way, typically varying up and down with a sine wave or saw tooth pattern at audio frequencies. The signal is then sent out from one antenna and received on another, typically located on the bottom of the aircraft, and the signal can be continuously compared.

2. Speed measurement
There is another effect that can be used to make much more accurate speed measurements, and do so almost instantly (no memory required), known as the Doppler Effect. Practically most modern radar uses this principle in the pulse-doppler radar system. It is also possible to make a radar without any pulsing, known as a continuouswave radar (CW radar), by sending out a very pure signal of a known frequency. Return signals from targets are shifted away from this base frequency via the Doppler effect enabling the calculation of the speed of the object relative to the radar.

3. Position measurement
Radio signals broadcast from a single antenna will spread out in all directions, and likewise a single antenna will receive signals equally from all directions. This leaves the radar with the problem of deciding where the target object is located.

Radar equation
The amount of power Pr returning to the receiving antenna is given by the radar equation:

where:

Pt = transmitter power, Gt = gain of transmitting antenna, Ar = effective aperture (area) of receiving antenna, = Radar Cross Section, or scattering coefficient of Rt = distance from transmitter to t target, Rr = distance from target to receiver.

target,

In the common case where the transmitter and receiver are at the same location, Rt = Rr and the term Rt Rr can be replaced by R4, where R is the range. This yields,

This shows that the received power declines as the fourth power of the range, which means that the reflected power from distant targets is very, very small. Note that the equation above is a simplification for vacuum without interference. In a real-world situation, path loss effects should be considered, as well as other factors of the transmission medium.

Frequency bands
Radar Frequency Bands Band Frequency Wavelength Notes Name Range Range coastal radar systems, over-the-horizon (OTH) radars; HF 3-30 MHz 10-100 m 'high frequency'

P VHF UHF L S C

Ku

Ka

Mm V W

'P' for 'previous', applied retrospectively to early radar systems very long range, ground penetrating; 'very high 50-330 MHz 0.9-6 m frequency' 300-1000 very long range (e.g. ballistic early warning), ground 0.3-1 m MHz penetrating, foliage penetrating; 'ultra high frequency' long range air traffic control and surveillance; 'L' for 1-2 GHz 15-30 cm 'long' terminal air traffic control, long range weather, marine 2-4 GHz 7.5-15 cm radar; 'S' for 'short' a compromise (hence 'C') between X and S bands; 4-8 GHz 3.75-7.5 cm weather Missile guidance, marine radar, weather, mediumresolution mapping and ground surveillance; in the 8-12 GHz 2.5-3.75 cm USA the narrow range 10.525GHz 25MHz is used for airport radar. high-resolution mapping, satellite altimetry; frequency 12-18 GHz 1.67-2.5 cm just under K band (hence 'u') from German kurz, meaning 'short'; limited use due to absorption by water vapor, so Ku and Ka were used instead for surveillance. K-band is used for detecting 18-27 GHz 1.11-1.67 cm clouds by meteorologists, and by police for detecting speeding motorists. K-band radar guns operate at 24.150 0.100 GHz. mapping, short range, airport surveillance; frequency just above K band (hence 'a') Photo radar, used to 27-40 GHz 0.75-1.11 cm trigger cameras which take pictures of license plates of cars running red lights, operates at 34.300 0.100 GHz. 40-300 GHz 1 7.5 mm millimeter band, subdivided as below 40-75 GHz 4.0 - 7.5 mm used as a visual sensor for experimental autonomous 75-110 GHz 2.7 - 4.0 mm vehicles, high-resolution meteorological observation < 300 MHz 1 m+

Specific Radar Systems

1. Active Electronically Scanned Array
An Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), also known as active phased array radar is revolutionary types of radar whose transmitter and receiver functions are

composed of numerous small transmit/receive (T/R) modules that each scan a small fixed area, negating the need for a moving antenna. AESA radars feature short to instantaneous (millisecond) scanning rates and have desirable low-probability of intercept characteristics.

2. Continuous-wave radar
Continuous-wave radar system is a radar system where a continuous wave is transmitted by one antenna and a second receives the radio energy reflected from an object. A very pure signal of a known frequency is transmitted by one antenna. Return signals received by the second antenna from targets are shifted away from this base frequency via the Doppler Effect. The main advantage of the CW radars is that they have no pulsing, and thus no minimum or maximum ranges (although the broadcast strength imposes a practical limit on the latter) as well as maximizing power on the target. However they also have the disadvantage of only being able to detect moving targets, as motionless ones (along the line of sight) will not cause a Doppler shift and the signal from such a target will be filtered out.

Continuous wave Doppler velocity radar unit, which provides a running record of the speed of rocket-powered models, fired at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' pilot less aircraft research station on Wallops Island, Va.

3. Phased array

Giant phased-array radar in Alaska

In telecommunication, a phased array is a group of antennas in which the relative phases of the respective signals feeding the antennas are varied in such a way that the effective radiation pattern of the array is reinforced in a desired direction and suppressed in undesired directions. This technology was originally developed for radio astronomy, leading to Physics Nobel Prizes for Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle after several large phased arrays were developed at Cambridge University. The design is also used in radar, and is generalized in interferometric radio antennas.

4. Doppler radar

These odd-looking domes have become more common sights across the United
States in the past fifteen years, as the National Weather Service has beefed up its storm-warning capabilities with more than one hundred Doppler radars. The radar lies inside the fiberglass dome. It bounces microwaves off tiny cloud particles dozens of miles away, to create a sort of x-ray of a turbulent thunderstorm. Doppler radar sometimes glimpses intense winds, side by side, moving in opposite directions: an

indication of a storm that is rotating, and that may be producing a tornado on the ground at that very moment.

"Doppler on Wheels", a state-of-the-art radar platform used primarily to study severe weather, is at the university this week in support of Atmospheric Science 401, a radar meteorology course in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

The powerful radar equipment comes from the University of Oklahoma. An Oklahoma meteorology professor and a radar technician will help students use the equipment to make measurements in various places in southern Wisconsin. "Doppler on Wheels" is designed to be driven close to severe storms and tornadoes to get a better picture of the dynamics of such storms. Doppler radar uses the Doppler Effect to return additional information from a radar system. The Doppler Effect shifts the frequency of the radar beam due to movement of the "target", allowing for the direct and highly accurate measurement of speeds. Doppler radars were originally developed for military radar systems, but have since become a part of almost all radar systems, including weather radar and radar guns for traffic police and sports.

Hurricane Katrina Doppler Radar as 0:43 UTC, 8-29-05

5. Millimeter cloud radar

The millimeter wave cloud radar (MMCR) is a remote sensing instrument that transmits a radar pulse directly overhead to determine the tops and bottoms of clouds. It can also serve as a type of Doppler radar in measuring up and down particle movements within a cloud. Values measured by radars are Doppler velocity, radar reflectivity, and spectral width. Unlike the more familiar NEXRAD which projects a somewhat horizontal coneshaped radar path, the Millimeter Wave Cloud Radar transmits an upward signal from the ground. These results in a vertical profile of any cloud passing over the radar site. Two types of computer images can be rendered from MMCR data.

In the "reflectivity" mode the largest particles encountered by the cloud radar produce the strongest reflection or echo. They can be seen as yellow to red to purple.

In the "velocity" mode the movement of particles toward or away from the radar source is also represented by different colors. Blue can be seen as movement of particles toward the radar source (falling rain) and red represents movement away from the radar source This is the same principle used by astronomers to detect the movement and speed of distant galaxies. It is called the Doppler Effect.

6. NEXRAD

NEXRAD Radar at NSSL NEXRAD or Nexrad (the next-generation radar) is a network of Doppler radars operated by the National Weather Service, an agency of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in the United States. NEXRAD detects precipitation and atmospheric movement or wind. It returns data which when processed can be displayed in a mosaic map which shows patterns of precipitation and its movement. The radar system operates in two basic modes, selectable by the operator: a slow-scanning "clear-air mode" for analyzing air movements when there is little or no activity in the area, and a "precipitation mode" with a faster scan time to do traditional storm tracking. NEXRAD is a high-resolution Doppler radar with increased emphasis on automation, including use of algorithms and automated volume scans.

7. Over-the-Horizon Radar
Over-the-horizon radar, (OTHR) is a design concept for radar system to overcome the problem that radio waves (a form of electromagnetic radiation) tend to travel in straight lines, making over-the-horizon detection difficult.

Over-the-horizon (OTH) radars were developed to detect military targets far beyond the optical horizon. They use 5-28-MHz radio waves, which reflect from the ionosphere, reaching up to 3,500 km in one "hop." Properties of the ocean surface are extracted from the minute amount of energy scattered by the sea surface back to the radar.

8. Passive Radars
Benefits 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Cheaper purchase and operations & maintenance costs. Covert operation. Detect targets continuously, typically once a second. May detect some types of stealth aircraft better than conventional radar systems. Non-intrusive - No frequency allocation - allowing deployment in areas where normal radars cannot be deployed. 6. Physically small and hence easily deployed

9. Secondary Surveillance

Radar

A Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) is a radar device installed in air traffic control facilities that improves the ability to see and identify aircraft. An SSR continuously transmits interrogation pulses. Any aircraft that is within range and contains an operating transponder listens for the SSR signal and sends a 4-digit transponder code that identifies itself. The aircraft is then displayed as a tagged icon on the controller's radar screen. This enhances conventional radar, because radar return signals reflected from passive objects such as birds, clouds, and terrain are weaker and less likely to be confused with an aircraft. An actual aircraft without an operating transponder may still be observed, but without an identifying tag. More advanced transponders also encode the aircraft's pressure altitude and call sign.

10. Radar gun

A radar gun is a small Doppler radar used to detect the speed of objects. A radar gun does not return position or power information. It relies on the Doppler Effect applied to a radar beam to measure the speed of objects it is pointed at.

U.S. Army soldier uses a radar gun to catch speeding violators at Tallil Air Base, Iraq

Radar guns may be hand-held or vehicle-mounted. Common uses include traffic speed law enforcement, and measuring the speed of balls in sports. 12. Synthetic

aperture radar

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a form of radar in which sophisticated postprocessing of radar data is used to produce a very narrow effective beam. It can only be used by moving instruments over relatively immobile targets, but it has seen wide applications in remote sensing and mapping.

SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar)

13. Terrain-following radar

Terrain-following radar is an aerospace technology that allows a very-lowflying aircraft to automatically maintain a constant distance above the ground, while flying at high speeds and low altitudes (even 100 feet or less above ground level). It is sometimes referred-to as ground hugging or terrain hugging. This technology is primarily used by military aircraft, to enable them to fly at very low altitudes in order to avoid detection by enemy radars and interception by antiaircraft systems. It is also sometimes used by civilian aircraft that map the ground and wish to maintain a constant height over it. The system works by periodically transmitting a radar signal downward and slightly forward. A computer computes the aircraft's height from the ground based on the signal's round-trip time and alters the aircraft's altitude in such a way as to keep a constant height above the ground just ahead.

Sonar
SONAR (SOund Navigation And Ranging) or sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation under water to navigate or to detect other watercraft. There are two kinds of sonar, active and passive.

History
In 1906, Lewis Nixon invented the very first sonar-type listening device, as a way of detecting icebergs. During World War I, with the need to detect submarines, interest in sonar increased. The Frenchman Paul Langevin working with Chilowski invented the first sonar-type device for detecting submarines in 1915. His work influenced the future of sonar designs. These first sonar devices were passive listening devices. In 1916, under the British Board of Inventions and Research, Dr Boyle in the UK took on the project which subsequently passed to the Anti- (or Allied) Submarine

Detection Investigation Committee which produced a prototype for testing in mid 1917 (hence the name ASDIC in British use). By 1918, both the United States and Britain had built active systems. The UK tested what they still called ASDIC on HMS Antrim in 1920, and started production of units in 1922. A shore training station HMS Osprey and a training flotilla of 4 vessels was set up. The 6th destroyer flotilla had ASDIC-equipped vessels in 1923. In World War II, the Americans used the term SONAR for their system.

The British still called their system ASDIC. In 1948, with the formation of NATO, standardization of signals led to the dropping of ASDIC in favor of sonar.

How does sonar work?

Sonar is simply making use of an echo. When an animal or machine makes a noise, it sends sound waves into the environment around it. Those waves bounce off nearby objects, and some of them reflect back to the object that made the noise. It's those reflected sound waves that you hear when your voice echoes back to you from a canyon. Whales and specialized machines can use reflected waves to locate distant objects and sense their shape and movement. The range of low-frequency sonar is remarkable. Dolphins and whales can tell the difference between objects as small as a BB pellet from 50 feet (15 meters) away, and they use sonar much more than sight to find their food, families, and direction. The LFA sonar being tested by the military can travel thousands of miles, and could cover 80% of the earth's oceans by broadcasting from only four points. The frequency that both whales and the military use falls between 100 and 500 Hz. Whales send signals out between 160 and 190 Db, the Navy has tested its sonar signals at levels up to 235 Db.

Sonar types
Active Sonar

Active Sonar systems are said to be active when sound is purposely generated by a component called the projector (an underwater loudspeaker). The sound waves generated travel through the sea to a target and are returned as echoes to a hydrophone array (underwater microphones), which converts the sound into an electrical signal. The source projector for active sonar may be either mounted on the hull of the vessel or fitted in a towed body that can be lowered to the best depth for submarine detection. This is known as a Variable Depth Sonar and the depth will depend on the depth of the target and also the sound propagation conditions. The way in which the propagation of sound is affected by the environment is described in Sound Propagation. Active sonar creates a pulse of sound, often called a "ping", and then listens for reflections of the pulse. To measure the distance to an object, one measures the time from emission of a pulse to reception. To measure the bearing, one uses several hydrophones, and measures the relative arrival time to each in a process called beam forming.

Cabin display of a fish finder sonar.

The pulse may be at constant frequency or a chirp of changing frequency. For a chirp, the receiver correlates the frequency of the reflections to the known chirp. The resultant processing gain allows the receiver to derive the same information as if a much shorter pulse of the same total energy were emitted. In practice, the chirp signal is sent over a longer time interval; therefore the instantaneous emitted power will be reduced, which simplifies the design of the transmitter. In general, long-distance active sonar uses lower frequencies. The lowest have a bass "BAH-WONG" sound.

Uses
When active sonar is used to measure the distance to the bottom, it is known as echo sounding. Active sonar is also used to measure distance through water between two sonar transponders. A transponder is a device that can transmit and receive signals ('pings') but

when it receives a specific interrogation signal it responds by transmitting a specific reply signal. To measure distance, one transponder transmits an interrogation signal and measures the time between this transmission and the receipt of the other transponder's reply. The time difference, scaled by the speed of sound through water and divided by two, is the distance between the two transponders. This technique, when used with multiple transponders, can calculate the relative positions of static and moving objects in water.

Analysis of active sonar data

A typical sonar data graph Active sonar data is obtained by measuring detected sound for a short period of time after the issuing of a ping; this time period is selected so as to ensure that the ping's reflection will be detected. The distance to the seabed (or other acoustically reflective object) can be calculated from the elapsed time between the ping and the detection of its reflection. Other properties can also be detected from the shape of the ping's reflection:

When collecting data on the seabed, some of the reflected sound will typically reflect off the air-water interface, and then reflect off the seabed a second time. The size of this second echo provides information about the acoustic hardness of the seabed. The roughness of a seabed affects the variance in reflection time. For a smooth seabed, all of the reflected sound will take much the same path, resulting in a sharp spike in the data. For a rougher seabed, sound will be reflected back over a larger area of seabed, and some sound may bounce between seabed features before reflecting to the surface. A less sharp spike in the data therefore indicates a rougher seabed.

Passive sonar

Passive Sonar or listening sonar, use sound radiated (usually involuntarily) by the target. In this case, only one way transmission is involved, and the system centers on the hydrophone array, used to listen to the target sounds. These arrays are towed behind the ship and may be greater than 500m long. Passive sonar listens without transmitting. It is usually employed in military settings, although a few are used in science applications.

Speed of sound
Sonar operation is affected by sound velocity. Sound velocity is much slower in fresh water than in sea water. In all water sound velocity is affected by density (or the mass per unit of volume). Density is affected by temperature, dissolved molecules (usually salinity), and pressure. The speed of sound (in feet per second) is approximately equal to 4388 + (11.25 temperature (in F)) + (0.0182 depth (in feet) + salinity (in parts-per-thousand)). This is an empirically derived approximation equation that is reasonably accurate for normal temperatures, concentrations of salinity and the range of most ocean depths. Ocean temperature varies with depth, but at between 30 and 100 metres there is often a marked change, called the thermocline, dividing the warmer surface water from the cold, still waters that make up the rest of the ocean. This can frustrate sonar, for a sound originating on one side of the thermocline tends to be bent, or refracted, off the thermocline. The thermocline may be present in shallower coastal waters, however, wave action

will often mix the water column and eliminate the thermocline. Water pressure also affects sound propagation. Increased pressure increases the density of the water and raises the sound velocity. Increases in sound velocity cause the sound waves to refract away from the area of higher velocity. The mathematical model of refraction is called Snell's law.

Identifying sound sources

Military sonar has a wide variety of techniques for identifying a detected sound. For example, U.S. vessels usually operate 60 Hz alternating current power systems. If transformers are mounted without proper vibration insulation from the hull, or flooded,

the 60 Hz sound from the windings and generators can be emitted from the submarine or ship, helping to identify its nationality. In contrast, most European submarines have 50 Hz power systems. Intermittent noises (such as a wrench being dropped) may also be detectable to sonar. Passive sonar systems may have large sonic databases, however most classification is performed manually by the sonar operator. A computer system frequently uses these databases to identify classes of ships, actions (i.e. the speed of a ship, or the type of weapon released), and even particular ships. Publications for classification of sounds are provided by and continually updated by the Office of Naval Intelligence (US).

Noise
Passive sonar on vehicles is usually severely limited because of noise generated by the vehicle. For this

reason, many submarines operate nuclear reactors that can be cooled without pumps, using silent convection, or fuel cells or batteries, which can also run silently. Vehicles' propellers are also designed and precisely machined to emit minimal noise. High-speed propellers often create tiny bubbles in the water, and this cavitation has a distinct sound. The sonar hydrophones may be towed behind the ship or submarine in order to reduce the effect of noise generated by the watercraft itself. Towed units also combat the thermocline, as the unit may be towed above or below the thermocline. Passive sonar is stealthy and very useful. However, it requires high-tech components (band pass filters, receivers) and is costly. It is generally deployed on expensive ships in the form of arrays to enhance the detection. Surface ships use it to good effect; it is even better used by submarines, and it is also used by airplanes and helicopters, mostly to a "surprise effect", since submarines can hide under thermal layers. If a submarine captain believes he is alone, he may bring his boat closer to the surface and be easier to detect, or go deeper and faster, and thus making more sound.

Sonar Types
Side scan sonar (also sometimes called side-scan sonar, sidescan sonar, side looking sonar and side-looking sonar) is a category of sonar system that is used to efficiently create an image of large areas of the sea floor.

Diagram of side scan sonar

This technique is used for a wide variety of purposes, including creation of nautical charts and detection and identification of underwater objects and bathymetric features. It may be used to conduct surveys for maritime archaeology; in conjunction with seafloor samples it is able to provide an understanding of the surface geology of the seabed. Side scan sonar imagery is also a commonly used tool to detect debris items and other obstructions on the seafloor that may be hazardous to shipping or to seafloor installations by the oil and gas industry. In addition, the status of pipelines and cables on the seafloor can be investigated using side scan sonar. Side scan data is typically acquired along with bathymetric soundings and sub-bottom data which provides a glimpse of the shallow structure of the seabed. Side scan sonar is also used for fisheries research, dredging operations and environmental studies. It also has military applications including mine detection.

Upward Looking Sonar

An upward looking sonar (ULS) is a sonar device pointed upwards looking towards the surface of the sea, and used to measure sea ice depth. Often it is moored to the bottom of the ocean and floats at a constant depth of perhaps 100 m. They may also be used by submarines.

Towed Array Sonar

When not deployed, an Akula's towed array is stored in a teardrop shaped container mounted on top of the vertical fin

Towed array sonar is a sonar array that is towed behind a submarine or surface ship. It is basically a long cable with hydrophones, up to 2000 m, that is trailed behind the ship when deployed. The hydrophones are placed at equal distance on the cable. On the first few hundred meters near the ship's propeller there are usually none since their effectivity would have been reduced by noise and turbulence generated by the propulsion. Surface ship often has the

array fixed to another cable, which pulls a tow vehicle behind the mother ship or directly to this torpedo-shaped vehicle. By changing the tow vehicles depth, the sensor can be deployed in different thermal layers. The array's hydrophones can be used to detect sound sources, but the real value of the array is that the signal processing technique of beamforming and interferometry can be used to calculate the distance and the direction of a sound source. For this, the relative position of the hydrophones must be known, usually this is only guaranteed when the cable of the array forms a line. Therefore a ship or submarine using a towed array will have to travel straight (and level), any change of course will disturb the array and reduce its effectivity. Also it has to reduce its speed because of the hydrodynamic drag might tear the cable - this can also happen if used in shallow waters and the array hits the ground. Despite all those disadvantages, a towed array is useful since it offers better resolution and range compared to a hull mounted sonar and it covers the baffles, the blind spot of hull mounted sonar.