Three-dimensional observations of tidal plume fronts in estuaries using a synthetic aperture sonar array

Timothy M Marston; Christopher Bassett; Daniel S Plotnick; Autumn N Kidwell; David A Honegger

doi:10.1121/10.0020671

Three-dimensional observations of tidal plume fronts in estuaries using a synthetic aperture sonar array

J Acoust Soc Am. 2023 Aug 1;154(2):1124-1137. doi: 10.1121/10.0020671.

Authors

Timothy M Marston¹, Christopher Bassett¹, Daniel S Plotnick², Autumn N Kidwell³, David A Honegger⁴

Affiliations

¹ The Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle 98105, USA.
² The Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
³ The Applied Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78758, USA.
⁴ School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA.

PMID: 37606356
DOI: 10.1121/10.0020671

Abstract

Synthetic aperture sonar (sas) systems are designed to observe stationary scatterers located near the sediment interface. Less commonly, a sas system may be used to observe scattering features located above the sonar in the water column. The Undersea Remote Sensing (USRS) project, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, was a collaborative Directed Research Initiative (DRI) focused on studying dynamic estuarine water column features. During the USRS DRI, researchers from multiple institutions gathered to observe tidal features at various estuaries along the coast of the United States using both in situ and remote sensing techniques, including sas. The first studied estuary was the mouth of the Connecticut River (CTR). Data captured by a sas system deployed during a tidal event were post-processed to create three-dimensional observations of the structure of the leading edge of the CTR's ebb plume front. From these observations, lobed structures similar in scale to previously reported instabilities are revealed, with the present observations providing additional insight regarding the structure of the bubble distribution behind the front. Velocity estimates of plume features were also determined from sas data and shown to compare favorably with concurrent marine radar estimates.