Abstract: A method for the acoustic surveying of the surface contours of the bottom of a body of water by means of a crossed fan beam echo sounding arrangement wherein, for the purpose of obtaining an accurate, unfalsified surface contour, the measured contours obtained by scanning the bottom of the body of water in a direction transverse to direction of the heading of the surveying ship are recalculated by means of a continuously checked and adapted correction value. The correction value is determined from deviations between a calibration contour and a test contour. The calibration contour is a longitudinal contour which is formed from measured contours lined up in the direction of the ship's heading and cover a strip on the bottom of the body of water extending perpendicularly below the path traversed by the surveying ship. The test contour is recorded in the same manner as the measured contour but with the echo sounder pivoted by 90.degree. about the elevation axis of the ship, i.e.

Abstract: A sonic energy scanning apparatus in which two directional primary sonic energy beams at two different frequencies are radiated into a medium capable of producing nonlinear acoustic effects to produce a third sonic energy beam having a given directional characteristic and a frequency equal to the difference between the frequencies of the primary beams. Scanning with the third beam is effected by varying the direction of the axes of, and the frequency difference between, the two primary beams in discrete steps for correspondingly varying the direction of the axis of the third beam over a selected angular sector and the frequency of the third beam such that each direction of the third beam axis is associated with a respectively different frequency, and by identifying the direction to a source of echoes of the third beam by determining the frequency of such echoes.

Abstract: In an echo sounder including a cathode-ray tube display device for providing a visual display in the form of a succession of image frames each composed of a series of image lines extending in a first direction on the display and spaced apart in a second direction on the display, with each line being composed of a plurality of image points, and a memory having a number of addressable memory locations equal to at least the number of image points in each frame, with a representation of each image point being stored at a respective memory location, the memory is an addressable read-write random access memory, and the device includes circuitry connected for causing each memory location address to consist of a first part identifying the location of one image line in the second direction on the display and a second part identifying the location of one image point along any line in the first direction on the display, an address counter producing an output representing the address part corresponding to one direction,

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving the directional characteristic of an echo sounder receiving base, which includes a plurality of transducers arranged in a common plane, by means of multiplicative processing of output signals obtained from the signals received by the transducers from a submarine or underwater sound wave generator having a constant transmitting frequency. A plurality of output signals of different frequencies are derived from every signal received by each transducer with the same frequency as the transmitting frequency, with one output signal being of the transmitting frequency and with other output signals being of a higher and of a lower frequency than the transmitting frequency respectively. The output signals from all transducers of the same frequency are added together to form first, second and third group signals of the transmitting frequency, the higher frequency and the lower frequency respectively.