<p>Two methods for evaluating and improving plane wave beamforming have beendeveloped. The methods estimate the shape of the wavefront and use theinformation in the beamforming. One of the methods uses estimates of the timedelays between the sensors to approximate the shape of the wavefront, and theother estimates the wavefront by matching the received wavefront to sphericalwavefronts of different radii. The methods are compared to a third more commonmethod of beamforming, which assumes that the impinging wave is planar. Themethods’ passive ranging abilities are also evaluated, and compared to a referencemethod based on triangulation.Both methods were evaluated with both real and simulated data. The simulateddata was obtained using Raylab, which is a simulation program based on ray-tracing. The real data was obtained through a field-test performed in the Balticsea using a towed array sonar and a stationary source emitted tones.The performance of the matched beamformers depends on the distance to the tar-get. At a distance of 600 m near broadside the power received by the beamformerincreases by 0.5-1 dB compared to the plane wave beamformer. At a distance of300 m near broadside the improvement is approximately 2 dB. In general, obtain-ing an accurate distance estimation proved to be difficult, and highly dependenton the noise present in the environment. A moving target at a distance of 600 mat broadside can be estimated with a maximum error of 150 m, when recursiveupdating of the covariance matrix with a updating constant of 0.25 is used. Whenrecursive updating is not used the margin of error increases to 400 m.</p>

In this thesis, opti-acoustic stereo imaging, which is the deployment of two-dimensional (2D) high frequency imaging sonar with the electro-optical camera in calibrated stereo configuration, is studied. Optical cameras give detailed images in clear waters. However, in dark or turbid waters, information coming from electro-optical sensor is insufficient for accurate scene perception. Imaging sonars, also known as acoustic cameras, can provide enhanced target details under these scenarios. To illustrate these visibility conditions, a 2D high frequency imaging sonar simulator as well as an underwater optical image simulator is developed. A computationally efficient algorithm is also proposed for the post-processing of the returned sonar signals. Where optical visibility allows, integration of the sonar and optical images effectively provides binocular stereo vision capability and enables the recovery of three-dimensional (3D) structural information. This requires solving the feature correspondence problem for these completely different sensing modalities. Geometrical interpretation of this problem is examined on the simulated optical and sonar images. Matching the features manually, 3D reconstruction performance of opti-acoustic system is also investigated. In addition, motion estimation from opti-acoustic image sequences is studied. Finally, a method is proposed to improve the degraded optical images with the help of sonar images. First, a nonlinear mapping is found to match local the features in opti-acoustical images. Next, features in the sonar image is mapped to the optical image using the transformation. Performance of the mapping is evaluated for different scene geometries.

Two methods for evaluating and improving plane wave beamforming have beendeveloped. The methods estimate the shape of the wavefront and use theinformation in the beamforming. One of the methods uses estimates of the timedelays between the sensors to approximate the shape of the wavefront, and theother estimates the wavefront by matching the received wavefront to sphericalwavefronts of different radii. The methods are compared to a third more commonmethod of beamforming, which assumes that the impinging wave is planar. Themethods’ passive ranging abilities are also evaluated, and compared to a referencemethod based on triangulation.Both methods were evaluated with both real and simulated data. The simulateddata was obtained using Raylab, which is a simulation program based on ray-tracing. The real data was obtained through a field-test performed in the Balticsea using a towed array sonar and a stationary source emitted tones.The performance of the matched beamformers depends on the distance to the tar-get. At a distance of 600 m near broadside the power received by the beamformerincreases by 0.5-1 dB compared to the plane wave beamformer. At a distance of300 m near broadside the improvement is approximately 2 dB. In general, obtain-ing an accurate distance estimation proved to be difficult, and highly dependenton the noise present in the environment. A moving target at a distance of 600 mat broadside can be estimated with a maximum error of 150 m, when recursiveupdating of the covariance matrix with a updating constant of 0.25 is used. Whenrecursive updating is not used the margin of error increases to 400 m.

In 2011 Manitoba experienced an extreme flood. The operation of the Assiniboine River Diversion resulted in the addition of approximately 1.72 million cubic decameters of water to Lake Manitoba and an increase in water levels to 1.5 m above normal. Although this event resulted damage to farmland and many local homes, it also provided me the unique opportunity to utilize previously impractical methods of bathymetric and substrata distribution analysis in the adjoining Delta Marsh. Combined with satellite imagery taken in 2011 I was able to classify the vegetation classes within the study area and explore the relationship between vegetation distributions and water depth as well as those between water depth and substrata distribution. A seed bank study was carried out to explore the diversity of viable seeds in the area. In addition, satellite imagery taken in 2009 was used to evaluate the effects of the flood event experienced in 2011. / October 2015

Η παρούσα εργασία εκπονήθηκε στα πλαίσια του Διατμηματικού Προγράμματος Μεταπτυχιακών σπουδών στις περιβαλλοντικές Επιστήμες. Οι θαλάσσιες γεωφυσικές έρευνες εκτελέστηκαν από το Εργαστήριο Θαλάσσιας Γεωλογίας και Φυσικής Ωκεανογραφίας (Ε.ΘΑ.ΓΕ.Φ.Ω) του Τμήματος Γεωλογίας του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών. Οι έρευνες του Οκτωβρίου του 2011 αποτελούν συνέχεια αυτών του Οκτωβρίου του 2010 με σκοπό να καλυφθεί το σύνολο της θαλάσσιας περιοχής για την οποία υπάρχει αδειοδότηση. Αντικείμενο της έρευνας είναι η γεωφυσική διασκόπηση του πυθμένα με τη χρήση ηχοβολιστή πλευρικής σάρωσης (side scan sonar) στις περιοχές της Νεάπολης και της Ελαφονήσου με σκοπό: α) την αποτύπωση της μορφολογίας του πυθμένα και β) τον εντοπισμό βιολογικών πόρων (λιβάδια Posidonia oceanica και ασβεστιτικά ροδοφύκη). Τα λιβάδια της Posidonia oceanica και τα ασβεστιτικά ροδοφύκη αποτελούν ενδημικά είδη της Μεσογείου των οποίων ο ρυθμός αύξησής τους θεωρείται εξαιρετικά αργός ενώ παράλληλα ο ρυθμός καταστροφής τους είναι τεράστιος και κρίνεται απαραίτητη η χαρτογράφηση τους ώστε να παρθούν καλύτερα μέτρα προστασίας.Η εμφάνιση των δύο βιολογικών σχηματισμών συμπίπτει με την βιβλιογραφία καθώς για την περιοχή μελέτης της Νεάπολης η Posidonia oceanica εμφανίζεται σε βάθη 0-35 m και στην Ελαφόνησο 0-25 m.Οι σχηματισμοί των ασβεστιτικών ροδοφυκών-ροδόλιθων εμφανίζονται σε βάθη 50-100 m για την Νεάπολη και 20-100 m για την Ελαφόνησο. / This present study was conducted for the Interdepartmental program of postgraduate studies in environmental sciences, Department of Geology. Marine geophysical survey took place in October 2011 by the Laboratory of Marine Geology and Physical Oceanography. The current research follows the survey of October 2010 in order to cover the entire sea area for which license was given. The purpose of this thesis is to have a full bottom analysis for the areas Neapoli and Elafonisos , using side scan sonar, and mapping Posidonia oceanica and Coralligene formations which are two very important species for the marine environment.

Cette thèse présente de nouvelles méthodes d'extraction de " pistes" dans des images gisement- temps présentées aux opérateurs d'un système sonar passif. Les pistes gisement-temps extraites sont nécessaires à la fonction trajectographie qui se trouve en aval dans la chaîne de traitement de l'information d'un tel système. Les méthodes que nous proposons se fondent sur l'analyse statistique de ce type d'image issue du traitement d'antenne. Cette analyse est l'objet du second chapitre. Puis dans une première approche, on ne considère que le cas (irréaliste) où une seule piste au plus, est présente dans l'image. Les deux extracteurs que nous construisons à partir de l'arsenal des techniques associées aux chaînes de Markov cachées (HMM), tiennent compte de l'intermittence de cette piste. Une fois la piste extraite par l'une ou l'autre méthode, on lui associe un module de trajectographie qui permet d'évaluer les performances des extracteurs et montre que leurs sorties sont exploitables. La seconde partie de la thèse se focalise sur le cas réel c'est-à-dire la présence de plusieurs pistes intermittentes et pouvant se croiser dans l'image gisement-temps. Deux extracteurs sont présentés et étudiés: l'un effectuant une extraction séquentielle c'est-à-dire extrayant piste après piste, un autre appelé extracteur parallèle, effectuant une extraction de l'ensemble des pistes simultanément. Les deux extracteurs proposés gérant de façon très insatisfaisante le croisement de pistes, on leur associe un module de trajectographie qui permet d'améliorer sensiblement celui-ci. Un bilan global du couple (extraction, trajectographie) est présenté dans la dernière partie de cette thèse.

L’objectif de ce travail est de reconstruire en 3D des objets archéologiques en environnement sousmarin. Une méthode de fusion est proposée afin d’obtenir une carte 3D à partir de données sonar et du système de stéréovision sous marin.Le manuscrit est décomposé en deux parties principales : Dans une première partie, la reconstruction d’objets 3D est réalisée à partir d’un système utilisant une paire de caméras stéréoscopiques. La seconde partie utilise les données 3D de l’environnement sous marin à partir d’un sonar multifaisceaux. Ensuite, les deux informations sont mises en correspondance, données optiques et acoustiques, nécessitant de prendre en compte les différentes résolutions de ces deux capteurs.La première partie se concentre sur le système optique permettant la reconstruction 3D des objets avec la paire stéréoscopique. Le travail se fait à partir de la séquence vidéo enregistrée par des plongeurs dans des environnements dont la complexité est croissante (piscine, lac, mer). L’utilisation d’une mire de calibration sous marine permet la calibration de chaque caméra afin d’en exprimer le modèle interne, puis de déterminer les paramètres externes de rotation et de translation entre les deux caméras stéréoscopiques.La difficulté de ce travail est de construire une reconstruction 3D à partir de la séquence vidéo stéréoscopique et d’extraire les paires d’images permettant d’y parvenir.La recherche de points d’intérêts et leur mise en correspondance est réalisée en appliquant la méthode de RANSAC. La triangulation des informations pertinentes des images 2D vers le nuage de points 3D est réalisée à partir du modèle à projection centrale et l’estimation de la distance euclidienne. La texture et le rendu 3D sont ensuite obtenus par rétropropagation de ces informations dans les images 2D. La séquence temporelle des images permet une reconstruction 3D des points de l’objet en estimant les différentes transformations entre les paires d’image et en se basant sur une méthode type Structure From Motion.La seconde partie permet d’effectuer la fusion de ce modèle 3D avec la carte acoustique fournie par le sonar multifaisceaux. Afin de guider l’alignement des deux modèles, une initialisation manuelle est nécessaire, en sélectionnant des points d’intérêt sur les deux nuages de points. La mise en correspondance est finalisée par un algorithme d’Iterative Closest Points.Ce travail a permis la création d’une carte 3D multimodale utilisant un modèle 3D obtenu à partir d’une séquence vidéo et d’une carte acoustique. / The objective of this work is to create the 3D reconstruction of the archaeologicalobjects in underwater environment. The fusion technique is present, to obtainedthe 3D maps from the optical and acoustic systems. This work is divided intotwo main parts; First, we created the 3D reconstruction of the underwater scenesfrom the optic system by using the stereo cameras. Second, we created the 3Dinformaton of the underwater environment from the acoustic system by using themultibeam sonar. And we merge the two different types of map, i.e. from the opticand acoustic, which is all the more difficult for different task because of differentresolutions.The first part focus on the optical system used, to carry out the 3D reconstruc-tion by using the stereoscopic device. The underwater video and images sequencefor this work were acquired by divers in different underwater environment such asthe sea, the lake and the pool. First using a stereo camera to take a video of a cali-bration chessboard to calibrate the parameters of the camera, the intrinsic parame-ters are estimated for each camera, and then the external parameters are estimatedto determine the rotation matrix and translation vector of the stereo camera.The aims of this work is to create 3D reconstruction from multiple images.In each images pair,the features of interest are selected and matched across im-age pairs. An additional outlier removal step is performed based on the RANSACmethod. Triangulation of the inlier features from the 2D images space into a sparse3D points cloud is done by using a pinhole camera model and Euclidean distanceestimation. Then, the texture and rendering of the 3D stereo model are processed.The tempolral sequence of images is processed into a set of local 3D reconstructionwith estimate of coordinate transformation between temporally adjacent 3D localreconstruction by using the SFM method.The second part consists of fusing the 3D model obtained previously with theacoustic map. To align the two 3D models (optical model and acoustic model), we use a first approximate registration by selecting manually few points on each cloud.To increase the accuracy of this registration, we use analgorithm ICP (IterativeClosest Point).In this work we created a 3D underwatermultimodal map performedusingglobal 3D reconstruction model and an acousticglobal map.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-13T17:08:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CamilaHCS_DISSERT.pdf: 5199158 bytes, checksum: 3fe566edfdb484ed92ea990061bd1ccd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-28 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The aim of this study was the seasonal characterization of the morphology, sedimentology and hydrodynamic of the A?u, Cavalos and Conchas estuaries. These estuaries are inserted in a semi-arid climate area and form the mouth of the hydrographic basin of the Piranhas-A?u river, that represent the discharge of the largest watershed in the state. They are embedded in an environment consisting of a fluvial-marine floodplain, mangrove ecosystem, sandbanks, fields of dunes, spits and sandy beaches. Adjacent to the natural units are the main local socioeconomic activities (oil industry, salt industry, shrimp farming, fishing and tourism) are dependent on this river and its conservation. The environmental monitoring is necessary because it is an area under constant action of coastal processes and at high risk of oil spill. The acquisition and interpretation of hydrodynamic, sonographic and sediment data was conducted in two campaigns, dry season (2010) and rainy season (2011), using respectively the current profiler ADCP Doppler effect, the side-scan sonar and Van Veen sampler. In these estuaries: A?u, Cavalos and Conchas were identified the following types of bedforms: flatbed and Dunes 2-D and 3-D (small to medium size), generated at lower flow regime (Froude number <1). Structures such as ripples were observed in the A?u estuary mouth. The higher values of flow discharge and velocity were recorded in the A?u estuary (434,992 m?.s-? and 0,554 m.s-?). In rainy season, despite the record of highest values of discharge and flow velocities at the mouth, the energy rates upstream did not differ much from the data of the dry season. However, in all estuaries were recorded an increase in speed and flow, with reservation to the flow in the A?u estuary and flow at the mouth of the Conchas estuary. Sediment grain sizes tend to increase towards the mouth of the estuary and these ranged from very fine sand to very coarse sand, medium sand fraction being the most recurrent. Based on the data acquired and analyzed, the estuaries A?u, Cavalos and Conchas are classified as mixed , dominated by waves and tides. According to their morphology, they are classified as estuaries constructed by bar and according to the classification by salinity, estuaries Conchas and Cavalos were ranked as hypersaline estuaries, and A?u as hypersaline and vertically well mixed type C / Este trabalho teve como objetivo a caracteriza??o sazonal da morfologia, sedimentologia e hidrodin?mica dos estu?rios A?u, Cavalos e Conchas. Estes estu?rios est?o inseridos numa regi?o semi-?rida e comp?e a desembocadura do Rio Piranhas-A?u, maior bacia hidrogr?fica do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte. Compreendem um ambiente constitu?do por plan?cie de inunda??o fl?vio-marinha, ecossistema de manguezal, bancos arenosos, campos de dunas, pontais e praias arenosas, onde os processos costeiros atuantes s?o ressaltados principalmente pela din?mica das modifica??es nas estruturas morfol?gicas ali presentes. Adjacente as unidades naturais, as principais atividades socioecon?micas locais s?o constituidas pela ind?stria petrol?fera, salineira, carcinicultura, pesqueira e tur?stica, tamb?m dependentes deste rio e da sua conserva??o. O monitoramento ambiental desta regi?o se faz portanto necess?rio por se tratar de uma ?rea sob constante a??o dos processos costeiros e com alto risco ao derramamento de ?leo. A aquisi??o de dados hidrodin?micos, sonogr?ficos e sedimentol?gicos foi realizada em duas campanhas: uma no per?odo seco de 2010 e outra no per?odo chuvoso de 2011, utilizando respectivamente, perfilador de correntes por efeito Doppler- ADCP, sonar de varredura lateral e amostrador pontual Van Veen. Nestes estu?rios foram identificadas fei??es de fundo do tipo Leito Plano e Dunas 2-D e 3-D (pequeno a m?dio porte), geradas em regime de fluxo inferior (n?mero de Froude <1). Estruturas do tipo marcas onduladas (ripples) foram observadas somente na foz do estu?rio A?u. Os maiores valores de vaz?o e velocidade do fluxo foram registrados no estu?rio A?u (434,992 m?.s-? e 0,554 m.s-?). No per?odo chuvoso foram registrados os maiores valores de descarga e velocidades do fluxo na regi?o da foz. Entretanto, na montante as taxas de energia n?o diferenciaram muito dos dados obtidos no per?odo seco. Contudo, foi registrado nos tr?s estu?rios um aumento na velocidade e na vaz?o durante o per?odo chuvoso, com ressalva na vaz?o no estu?rio A?u e na vaz?o na foz do estu?rio Conchas. Os sedimentos presentes nos estu?rios variaram de areia muito fina a areia muito grossa, sendo a fra??o areia m?dia a mais recorrente. Em geral a granulometria aumentou em dire??o a foz dos estu?rios. Com base na an?lise e interpreta??o dos dados adquiridos os estu?rios A?u, Cavalos e Conchas foram classificados como dominados por processos misto de ondas e mar?s. De acordo com a morfologia foram classificados como estu?rios constru?dos por barra e segundo a classifica??o por salinidade, os estu?rios A?u, Cavalos e Conchas foram classificados como estu?rios hipersalinos. Adicionalmente o estu?rio A?u tamb?m foi classificado como verticalmente bem misturado do tipo C

This thesis investigates the development of a low-cost passive acoustic system for localizing moving vessels to monitor areas where human activities such as fishing, snorkeling and poaching are restricted. The system uses several off-the-shelf sensors with unsynchronized clocks where the Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) or time delay is extracted by cross-correlation of the signal between paired sensors. The cross-correlation function uses phase correlation or Phase Transform (PHAT) which whitens the cross-spectrum in order to de-emphasize dominant frequency components. Using the locations of pairs of sensors as foci, hyperbolic equations can be defined using the time delay between them. With three or more sensors, multiple hyperbolic functions can be calculated which intersect at a unique point: the boat's location. It is also found that increasing separation distances between sensors decreased the correlation between the signals. However larger separation distances have better localization capability than with small distances. Experimental results from the Columbia and Willamette Rivers are presented to demonstrate performance.

Thesis (S.M.)--Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-98). / The changing state of warfare has driven the US Navy's area of operations closer to shore into littoral coastal waters. Mine Warfare has been proven as an extremely effective means of battlespace control in these waters. Mines can be inexpensively mass produced and rapidly deployed over large areas. The most common type of mine in use is the bottom placed mine, an object with simple geometry that sits on the seafloor. These mines often exhibit scour induced burial below the seafloor, making detection through traditional mine hunting methods difficult or impossible, while the mines themselves remain lethal. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has developed a computer model that predicts the extent of mine burial to aid mine hunting and mine clearing operations. Investigations under ONR's Mine Burial Program are presently being conducted to calibrate and validate this model. This thesis uses data from the deployment of an acoustically instrumented model mine near the Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory in part of a larger, 16 total object investigation. A 2-axis pencil beam sonar was deployed concurrently with the mine to obtain microbathymetric measurements of the scour pit development and the progression of mine burial. Data correction techniques to correct for beam pattern induced bathymetry errors and a transformed coordinate system are detailed within. / (cont.) An analysis of scour pit dimensions includes scour depth, area, and volume as well as a look into percent burial by depth as a characteristic measurement important for operational mine hunting. The progression of mine burial is related to the wave climate, unsteady flow hydrodynamic forcing, and bed-load transport. The analysis examines the relative roles of these mechanisms in the scour-infill-bury process. / by Brendan Reed Gotowka. / S.M.