Low-Frequency Synthetic Aperture Sonar For Detecting Explosives in Harbors

Naval mines and underwater improvised explosive devices in harbors can halt or block maritime transport, causing local disruptions that can impact national and regional economies considerably. Securing harbors against such threats is implemented in the Netherlands through cooperation between civil and military authorities. Existing commercial high-frequency sonar systems can detect and classify underwater explosives, however, these systems are not capable of detecting objects that have become covered by mud or sand because high-frequency sound does not penetrate into the harbor bottom. To detect and identify buried objects, alternative techniques have to be applied. Magnetometry and low-frequency sonar are two candidate solutions