Processing, presentation, and data basing of acoustic imagery

The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) collects and processes acoustic imagery from multiple sensors at various frequencies. These currently include the towed 12-kHz SEAMAP system, the towed 100-kHz hydrographic sidescan, and the hull-mounted multibeam bathymetric sonars. The hull-mounted systems at NAVOCEANO providing acoustic imagery include the 12-kHz Sonar Array Survey System (SASS) and coming on-line in the near future, the 12-kHz SIMRAD 121A. Three issues arise when dealing with multiple imaging sensors: data processing, data volume (data basing), and data presentation and visualization for analysis. To meet the need, NAVOCEANO has developed a generic image processing system, the UNIfied Sonar Image Processing System (UNISIPS) for processing acoustic imagery from various systems. This system includes signal processing, image processing, and georeferencing (digital mosaicing) of the acoustic imagery. Once processed by UNISIPS, these data are entered into a large Geographic Information System (GIS), the Comprehensive Environmental Assessment System (CEAS), where they are integrated with other co-registered data sets for presentation and interpretation. Within CEAS the capability to overlay other data types includes bathymetry, geology, gravity, and altimetry for analysis. The presentation/display/visualization is performed in both two and three dimensions. Presented within the paper are the techniques used for data basing, processing, and data presentation.