Method for direction forming in the case of a towed acoustic underwater antenna

摘要

The direction forming in the case of a towed underwater antenna achieves greater directional precision and unambiguous side designation by means of the following method. The lateral deflection of the hydrophone which is at the front in the towed chain is measured continuously at a clock frequency which is defined by the towing speed and the hydrophone separation in the towed chain and is stored in a memory having a shift-register function, the number of storage locations in which corresponds to the number of hydrophones on the towed chain. The echo-sounding ranges, which are normally determined in order to calculate the required time delays for the output signals of the hydrophones, which are lined up in the towing direction, are corrected, using these stored values, with respect to their echo-sounding points located on an axis which is transverse with respect to the axis of the directional characteristics, and only then are the delay times calculated from the corrected echo-sounding ranges. During the correction, stored values are assigned to the echo-sounding ranges in the sequence of hydrophones defined by the towed chain, in such a manner that the stored value stored last corrects the depth-finding range of the front hydrophone in the towing direction in the towed chain and the stored value which is stored before a number of storage cycles corresponding to the number of hydrophones in the towed chain corrects the echo-sounding range of the hydrophone which is last in the towing direction.