A MICROCOMPUTER PROGRAM FOR POST-PROCESSING SIDE-SCAN SONAR DATA

High resolution shallow water side-scan sonars are mapping instruments that produce detailed images of the seafloor over which they are towe d. Side-scan sonars are used for a variety of applications, including geologic surveying and minehunting. Raw side-scan data, stored on digi tal tape, contains many geometric and radiometric errors. Post-process ing corrects these errors and maximizes the usefulness of the data. Th e Borland PASCAL program SIDESCAN has been developed for sonograph dis play and analysis. The program runs on standard MS-DOS microcomputers and displays fully corrected image segments and mosaics. Merging satel lite navigation data with the side scan imagery yields ground register ed images, allowing a user to accurately locate (in latitude/longitude corrdinates) and measures any bottom feature or overlay bathymetric c ontours. A digital image of the Severn River bottom demonstrates the p ower of the process.