CALCULATION OF THE SHAPE OF A TOWED UNDERWATER ACOUSTIC ARRAY

An important area of towed underwater acoustic research is the determination of the three-dimensional positions of all hydrophones in the array. Although there are a number of methods available that provide position information at a small number of locations along the array, an interpolation scheme is needed that will permit the estimation of the position of all hydrophones so that further processing of acoustic data may proceed. In this paper, an interpolation technique based on a twisted quartic spline approximation to a space curve is developed. This technique provides the advantages of numerical stability, necessary smoothness, and satisfaction of physical boundary conditions. Most importantly, it permits the estimation of the positions of all hydrophones in the array.