Stratified layer imaging using synthetic aperture processing.

Synthetic aperture processing is applied to seabed reflection data to improve images of stratified sediment layering. Vertical profiles of sediments are limited in dynamic range by sediment scattering. Synthetic aperture processing, which increases the effectiveness along track length of the sonar transmitter and receiver, suppresses scattering noise, thereby allowing detection of stratified layering with weaker reflection coefficients. The image improvement resulting from the application of synthetic aperture processing is determined by comparing reflection profiles generated with and without synthetic aperture processing. The processing algorithm used in the analyses is not the conventional synthetic aperture processing algorithm which is coherent for point scatterers, but is an algorithm that provides coherent processing for planar reflectors.