Multimission and multispectral sonar

A sonar system for installation on a water going vehicle comprising:

• sonar devices including a transmitter, a receiver, projectors, and hydrophones;
• a plurality of X signals in respective frequency bands that support X measurement functions;
• the X signals distributed in Y respective transmissions;
• each of the Y transmissions from the transmitter causes the projectors to emit sound waves;
• the sound waves focused on an elongated region such that scattering centers within the elongated region are ensonified;
• the receiver and hydrophones forming multiple receive beams that intersect the elongated region at multiple locations;
• and,
• the receiver acquiring echo data from the scattering centers at the intersections;
• wherein frequency dependent characteristics of the ensonified scattering centers evident in the echoes enable the measurement functions.

A sonar system for installation on a water going vehicle comprising:

• sonar devices including a transmitter, a receiver, projectors, and hydrophones;
• a plurality of X signals in respective frequency bands, the X signals distributed in Y respective transmissions;
• each of the Y transmissions from the transmitter cause the projectors to emit sound waves;
• the sound waves focused on an elongated region such that scattering centers within the elongated region are ensonified;
• the receiver and hydrophones forming multiple receive beams that intersect the elongated region at multiple locations;
• and,
• the receiver acquiring echo data from the scattering centers at the intersections;
• wherein echo data in each frequency band is processed such that at each frequency, a frequency dependent scattering center characteristic enables a measurement function.

A sonar method comprising the steps of:

• on a water going vehicle, providing a sonar including a transceiver, a plurality of transducers in a projector array, and a plurality of transducers in a hydrophone array;
• configuring the transceiver, projector array, and hydrophone array to form intersecting transmit and receive beams;
• transmitting a first signal in a first frequency band;
• collecting echo data via first receive beams from scattering centers ensonified by the first signal;
• transmitting a second signal in a second frequency band that does not overlap the first frequency band;
• collecting echo data via second receive beams from scattering centers ensonified by the second signal;
• and,
• from the echo data resulting from the first and second signals, performing one or more measurement functions that indicate one or more frequency dependent characteristics of the ensonified scattering centers.