Sonar Acceptance

This section will occasionally refer to the following documents:

NOAA Field Procedures Manual (FPM) - See “Field Procedures Manual” section Multibeam Advisory Committee (UNOLS MAC) Reports - Reports

Multibeam systems require a great deal of upfront work to get a well configured system. This includes an initial vessel survey to determine the orientation and location of the multibeam and subsequent tests to refine those orientation values (mounting angles - roll, pitch, yaw) as well as determine the capabilities/health of the system. We (NOAA) generally lump multibeam sonar testing into three broad categories (See FPM Section 1.1):

  1. Sonar Acceptance - performed on installation of new sonar system to qualify that system

  2. Hydrographic Systems Readiness Review (HSRR) - performed each year prior to the start of the surveying season, and whenever the system is moved or replaced

  3. Periodic Quality Assurance Checks - performed to ensure equipment is working properly at some user defined interval

These three categories of tests can overlap, for example, a patch test would be performed in both the Acceptance test and in the HSRR. Also, these tests involve many tests that are not found in Kluster, including assessment of sound velocity profilers, Sidescan calibration checks, and more. With Kluster, we are going to focus specifically on the multibeam oriented tests, namely:

  1. Patch Test - performed in the Sonar Acceptance test and HSRR

  2. Reference Surface - performed in the Sonar Acceptance test and HSRR

  3. Accuracy Test - performed in the Sonar Acceptance test

  4. Extinction Test - performed in the Sonar Acceptance test

  5. Attitude Latency Assessment - performed in the Sonar Acceptance test and HSRR

Move on to one of the next sections to learn more. I will be going through a Sonar Acceptance test that I was a part of, and discussing what I did to plan for it. This is all up for debate I am sure, and only represents my opinion on a way to perform these tests.

Note that there are many Sonar Acceptance test reports available online, at the UNOLS MAC website.