The ABCS Program for the Analysis of Echo Sounder Returns for ...

DSTO-GD-0215The FFT plot was calculated using a Radix 2 decimation (J.G. Proakis and D.G.Manolakis 1989), with the power spectrum (real 2 +imag 2 ) being displayed.When calculating the half widths and centroid powers, the width of the return at aspecific power level has to be found. To reduce the effect of the noise in the signal, thecurve intercept was found at four points, two points each side of the return's peak. Theinside and outside values on each side were found and then averaged (see Figure 8).Averagedintercept point usedOutside interceptPower level requiredPowerInside interceptSignalTimeFigure 8 : Intercept point calculation for one side of the peak.For the tail of the first return;• The centroid power and time (time is calculated from the start of the first return).• The energy of the tail. Called the Tail Ref. 1st Return for the reference seafloordepth and Tail 1st Return for the actual seafloor depth, in the energy resultsframe. The energy for the reference seafloor depth can be compared fordifferent sites. The actual seafloor depth energy can not be used for comparisonwith other sites, but is more for seeing the strength of the signal returned.The tail of the first return is from the start of the first return + the ping duration tothe end of the first return (see Figure 9).15