Side scan sonar receives the backscattered wave from the seabed and records the reflection intensity on the line of selected range. By the continuous oscillation, the record shows the seabed feature as the sonic image like a photograph. This survey is effective and fitted for the understanding of the seabed condition widely, compared with a diver survey.
The yellow color in the right figure represents the shallow area less than 200m in water depth, and magenta color the deep area from 200m to 1500m. These areas are our territory by the side scanning.

■Combination of Side Scanning and Multi-beam Echo Sounding

Very precise seabed data can be obtained by the combination of side scanning and multi-beam echo sounding. This combination survey is sometimes deployed for the submarine structure survey.

■Combination of Side Scanning and Sub-bottom Profiling

Some of tow-fish has both transducer of the side scan sonar and the sub-bottom profiler, and our territory of this type is up to 1500m in water depth. Both data at same position are useful for the understanding of geological structure as shown in the right figure.