MULTI-BEAM ECHO SOUNDERS

ARMAND MAULANA YUSUF

Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia
armandmaulanayusuf@gmail.com
This article is made to summarize about Multi-beam echo sounders. Multi-beam echo sounders are the sophisticated echo
sounders that exist nowadays. It can distinguish between vertical arrival angles of the returned pulse from sea bottom
(Lurton, 2002).
Multi-beam echo sounders used in almost every branch of hydrographic surveying such as dredging, offshore and charting.
Multi-beam echo sounders are mainly used in area where high resolution and wide coverage of sea bottom is needed
(Lekkerkerk et al., 2006).
Multi-beam echo sounders are used to measured depths along a swath fanning out from the transducer. Basically the
working principle is similar to Single beam echo sounder (SBES). The signal sent from transducer and it will propagate
through the sea. The signal will either cover entire swath or just part of in depends on the multi-beam type. Then the signal
will reflected by sea bottom back to the transducer. The travel time needed for the signal from transmitted until received by
the transducer will determine the depth of the area (Lekkerkerk et al., 2006).
Multi-beam echo sounders are divided into two categories, swath system and sweep system. Swath system produces
multiple beams from just one transducer mounted on the vessel. On the other hand, sweep system consists of a single beam
echo sounder array mounted on booms which are deployed on each side of the vessel and perpendicular to the surface of it
(de Jong et al,. 2010).

(a)

(b)

Figure 1. Multi-beam echo sounders categories: (a) Swath System (b) Sweep System
Multi-beam echo sounders can cover wider coverage either in shallow water or much deeper water depends on the
specification. The focus of Multi-beam echo sounders is on the resultant bathymetry for object detection. So, thats why
Multi-beam echo sounders are very useful in hydrographic surveying (Lekkerkerk et al,. 2006).
References:
Ainslie M. (2010). Principles of Sonar Performance Modelling. Springer Verlag, New York, United States of America.
Jan Lekkerkerk, H., van der Velden, R., Haycock, T., Jansen, P., de Vries, R., van Waalwijk, P., Beemster, C. (2006).
Handbook of Offshore Surveying Volume 2: Acquisition & Processing. Clarkson, London, England.
Lurton, X. (2002).An introduction to underwater acoustics: Principles and applications. Praxis, Chichester, UK.