왜 우리는 해저탐사에서 음파를 사용하는가?

Abstract

The higher wave frequency is, the better image resolution is. The light is wave and the sound is also wave. But the reasons why a light cannot be applied to the sea-bottom survey are very short traveling distance and very high energy damping in the water. The maximum penetration depth of a visible light is about 200m at the clean water. Therefore acoustic (sound) waves play as the good messenger to get the useful information about the underwater/sub-bottom targets, even though its wave frequency is a little lower than the light waves. The sound character is also controlled by its frequency. In case that the sound source is low frequency, the penetration is high and the resolution is low. On the other hand, its character is reversed at the high frequency. The common character at the both of light and sound is the energy damping on increasing the travel distance.