Sonobuoy: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

All Topics

Sonobuoy

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

	Sonobuoy
	Home Discussion
	Topics Sonobuoy Topic Home A sonobuoy (a portmanteauPortmanteau A portmanteau is a term in linguistics that refers to a word or morpheme that fuses two or more grammatical functions.... of sonarFacts About Sonar SONAR — or sonar — is a technique that uses sound propagation under water to navigate or to de... and buoyBuoy A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes, which determine whether the buoy is anchored or allowed t... ) is a relatively small (typically 4? inches, or 124 mm, in diameter and 36 inches, or 910 mm, long) expendable sonar system that is dropped/ejected from aircraftAircraft An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight.... or ships conducting anti-submarine warfareAnti-submarine warfare If you were searching for A/S, you might have meant aksjeselskap, a Norwegian stock company form.... or underwater acousticUnderwater acoustics Overview Underwater acoustics is the study of the propagation of sound in water and the interaction of the mechanical waves that const... research. Theory of operation The buoys are ejected from aircraft in canisters and deploy upon water impact. An inflatable surface float with a radio transmitter remains on the surface for communication with the aircraft, while one or more hydrophoneHydrophone A hydrophone is a sound-to-electricity transducer for use in water or other liquids, analogous to a microphone for air.... sensors and stabilizing equipment descend below the surface to a selected depth that is variable, depending on environmental conditions and the search pattern. The buoy relays acousticAcoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that studies sound, namely mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids.... information from its hydrophone(s) via UHF/VHF radio to operators onboard the aircraft. History: searching the seas With the technological improvement of the submarineSubmarine A submarine is a specialized watercraft that can operate underwater.... in modern warfare, the need for an effective tracking system was born. Sound Navigation And Ranging was originally developed by the British—who called it ASDICSonar SONAR — or sonar — is a technique that uses sound propagation under water to navigate or to de... —in the waning days of World War IWorld War I World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War and "The War to End All Wars" was a global m... . At the time the only way to detect submarines was by listening for them (passive sonar), or visually by chance when they were on the surface recharging their batteryBattery (electricity) Overview In science and technology, a battery is a device that stores chemical energy and makes it available in an electrical form.... banks or by massive air patrols with lumbering airshipAirship An airship is a buoyant aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air.... s and biplanes. Sonar saw extremely limited use and was mostly tested in the Atlantic OceanAtlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface.... with few naval officers seeing any merit in the system. With the end of WWI came the end to serious development of sonar in the US, a fact that was to be fatal in the early days of World War IIWorld War II World War II, or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict fought between the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers ,... . However, considerable development of ASDIC took place in the UK, including integration with a plotting table and weapon. The ravaging wolf-packs of U-boatU-boat U-boat is the anglicization of the German word U-Boot, itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot .... s in WWII made the need for sonar a priority. With millions of tons of shipping being sunk in the Atlantic, there was a need to locate submarines so that they could be sunk or prevented from attacking. Sonar was installed on a number of ships along with Radio Detection and Ranging to detect surfaced submarines. While sonar was a primitive system, it was constantly improved. Modern anti-submarine warfare grew from the WWII convoy and battle group movement through hostile waters. It was imperative that submarines be detected and neutralized long before the task group came within range of an attack. With progress in naval aviation it became possible to dedicate entire classes of aircraft (such as the P-2 NeptuneP-2 Neptune Overview The Lockheed P-2 Neptune was a naval patrol bomber and anti-submarine warfare aircraft for the United States Navy between 19... , S-2 TrackerS-2 Tracker Summary The Grumman S-2 Tracker was the first purpose-built anti-submarine warfare aircraft to enter service with the US Navy.... , S-3B VikingS-3 Viking The Lockheed S-3 Viking is a jet aircraft used by the United States Navy to hunt and destroy enemy submarines and provide su... and P-3 OrionP-3 Orion The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a maritime patrol aircraft of the United States military used primarily for maritime patrol, recon... ) to anti-submarine warfare (ASW). A compact, portable and powerful sonar system that could be deployed by aircraft was needed: the sonobuoy. Early sonobuoys had limited range, limited battery life and were overwhelmed by the noise of the ocean. They were also limited by the use of human ears to discriminate man-made noises from the oceanic background. However, they demonstrated that the technology was viable. With the development of better hydrophones, the transistorTransistor The transistor is a three terminal solid state semiconductor device that can be used for amplification, switching, voltage s... and miniaturization, and the realisation that very low frequency soundInfrasound Summary Infrasound is sound with a frequency too low to be detected by the human ear.... was important, more effective acoustic sensors followed. The sonobuoy went from being an imposing six foot tall, two foot diameter sensor to the compact suite of electronics it is today. Concept of operation Sonobuoys are classified into three categories: active, passive and special purpose. Active sonobuoys emit sound energy into the water and listen for the returning echo before transmitting—usually range and bearing—information via UHF/VHF radio to a receiving ship or aircraft. Passive sonobuoys emit nothing into the water but rather listen, waiting for mechanically generated sound waves (for instance, power-plant, propeller or door-closing and other noises) from ships or submarines to reach the hydrophone that are then transmitted via UHF/VHF radio back to a receiving ship or aircraft. Special purpose sonobuoys relay various types of oceanographic data to a ship, aircraft, or satellite. There are three types of special-purpose sonobuoys in use today. These sonobuoys are not designed for use in submarine detection or localization. BT—The bathythermobuoy (BT) relay bathythermographicBathythermograph The bathythermograph, or BT, is a small torpedo-shaped device that holds a temperature sensor and an element to detect chang... or salinitySalinity Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water.... readings, or both, at various depths. SAR—The search and rescueSearch and rescue Search and rescue is an operation mounted by emergency services, often well-trained volunteers, to find someone believed to ... (SAR) buoy is designed to operate as a floating RFRadio frequency Radio frequency, or RF, refers to that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in which electromagnetic waves can be g... beacon. As such, it is used to assist in marking the location of an aircraft crash site, a sunken ship, or survivors at sea. ATAC/DLC—Air transportable communication (ATAC) and down-link communication (DLC) buoys, such as the UQC, or "gertrude", are intended for use as a means of communication between an aircraft and a submarine, or between a ship and a submarine. This information is analysed by computers, acoustic operators and TACCOTacco Tacco is the military abbreviation for "Tactical Coordinator" and is the aircrew member responsible for coordinating the act... s to interpret the sonobuoy information. Any noise that a submarine makes is a potential death knell, so few submariners are communicative. Active and/or passive sonobuoys may be laid in large fields or barriers for initial detection. Active buoys may then be used for precise location. Passive buoys may also be deployed on the surface in patterns to allow relatively precise location by triangulationTriangulation In trigonometry and elementary geometry, triangulation is the process of finding coordinates and distance to a point by calc... . Multiple aircraft or ships monitor the pattern either passively listening or actively transmitting in order to drive the submarine into the sonar net. Sometimes the pattern takes the shape of a grid or other arrayArray In computer programming, a group of elements of a specific data type is known as an array, one of the simplest data structures.... formation and complex beamformingBeamforming Beamforming is a signal processing technique used with arrays of transmitters or receivers that controls the directionality ... signal processingSignal processing Signal processing is the processing, amplification and interpretation of signals and deals with the analysis and manipulatio... is used to transcend the capabilities of single, or limited numbers of, hydrophones. External links