Program overview

This workshop provides a technical introduction to Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) and presents the new HISAS2020 system. The session explains how SAS achieves high resolution independent of range, how HISAS2020 is designed for integration across multiple platforms, and how real-time processing tools can be used to optimize data quality. Participants will gain insight into how platform alignment, navigation accuracy, and sound velocity structure influence SAS performance, and how these effects can be visualized and corrected during processing.

Participants will learn:

• The fundamentals of Synthetic Aperture Sonar and how SAS differs from conventional side-scan and multibeam systems.
• The architecture and key components of the HISAS2020 system.
• The data flow from raw acoustic returns through motion compensation and beamforming to image formation. 
• How real-time quality assessment tools visualize geometry, alignment, navigation consistency, and sound velocity effects during processing.
• Typical operational scenarios and the expected performance envelope of HISAS2020.

The electromagnetic receiver sensor system Listen enables accurate and reliable electric and magnetic field measurements from AUVs. The Listen system has been integrated on various AUVs and has been commercially used in surveys for pipeline cathodic protection measurements, marine mineral exploration and cable positioning with emphasis on cable burial depth below seafloor. The Listen system is run and used in combination with other payloads such as multibeam echosounders (EM2040), HISAS, lasers and cameras.

This workshop will focus on Listen data applications with real data cases. In particular, Listen data acquisition, processing and visualization will be described as well as how the Listen sensor HW has been integrated on a Hugin AUV.

This workshop introduces a set of new and evolving tools designed to support data access, inspection, and integration across different workflows. We will demonstrate the Kongsberg Record Viewer and Data Relocator, along with examples of how mapping data can be used outside of SIS in tools like QGIS. The session will focus on what these tools enable in practice – how to inspect files more easily, share data when needed, and connect with open-source environments for visualization and analysis.

Extending EK80 capabilities across multidisciplinary marine surveys

The EK80 product family is designed to produce high-quality, calibrated water-column backscatter measurements for fisheries acoustics and marine ecosystem studies. Its capabilities, however, extend well beyond biological applications.

This workshop will explore a range of alternative and complementary applications for EK80 systems. These include sub-bottom surveys, fluid mud surveys, detection of buried objects, gas quantification and bathymetric mapping using bi-planar interferometry.

The workshop will also introduce the ADCPs available within the EK80 product family. These systems provide measurements of currents, turbulence, and other oceanographic features, at high horizontal and vertical resolution.

The EK80 ADCPs complement, rather than compromise, the quality and continuity of water-column backscatter data, enabling the systems to be used together within an integrated survey approach.

Through practical examples the workshop will demonstrate how an integrated EK80-based approach can improve the efficiency and information content of multidisciplinary marine surveys.