Seafloor properties and segmentation

The interest here is in using acoustic signals to divide the seabed into regions that are relevant in the context of MCM operations and extracting those features, which drive the process. This is termed segmentation followed by classification. A recently developed seabed segmentation algorithm is presented: SESAM (SEafloor Segmentation AlgorithM). It is based on the analysis of angular dependence of the acoustic backscatter. Such information is readily acquired with multibeam systems. The algorithm will be described together with illustrations of segmentation results from an area that has been very well characterized. Comparison of segmentations with ground truth data (grabs, penetrometers, stereo photography, sidescan sonar) is used to endorse the algorithm and confirm that the identified regions are related to seabed features of relevance.