RESEARCH STATUS AND PROSPECT OF SONAR-DETECTING TECHNIQUES NEAR SUBMARINE

Abstract

The research and developing history of China's submarine instruments are reviewed.The present research status and tendency of sonar-techniques for submarine exploring,such as multi-beam sounding,sub-profiler sonar and side-scan sonar etc,are summarized and contrasted with the international status.Although many papers about the marine technique or theory are published and a lot of marine instruments are made in China in the last decades,there are still a great many urgent unfathomed issues about China's marine techniques.The current level of China's ocean techniques still lags behind the overseas ocean techniques.The main forces to impel China's ocean techniques developing quickly in recent years are that China's deep-sea resources researches are carried out deeply and quickly and a series of important survey projects to protect the ocean rights and interests have been brought into effect in China Sea.Since the late 1990s,a series of marine research projects under the "863" Program have been initiated,with lots of key instruments and softwares being developed serving China's survey projects.China's submarine techniques are developing quickly.Multi-beam sounding,sub-profiler sonar and side-scan sonar are convenient tools to explore the submarine quickly.They are based on similar detecting principles,but different acoustics information near submarine are obtained for different frequencies,and powers are used in these instruments.The datum about water depth,amplitude and backscatter are obtained with multi-beam sounding,the reflecting profiles from underlain sediment layer just like single seismic profile are detected with sub-profiler sonar.The seafloor images are obtained with side-scan sonar.These data are the base to study many issues about submarine geosciences.Seabed acoustics classification techniques,submarine acoustics in-situ test,dynamic geomorphologic and morphology tectonic are several hot-topics of application research based on the data of sonar-detecting near submarine.In the end,several sustainable development ideas about China's marine techniques are proposed: ①More articles about theory and technique of submarine techniques should be published to promote the research ability and level;②More submarine detecting instruments and equipment should be invented and produced quickly in China to quicken the homemade progress;③The data-processing software of submarine instruments should be built in China to enhance the copyright of our own;④The data of sonar-detecting near seafloor should be studied and applied deeply to widen the realms of submarine geosciences.