Topic summary
GLORIA sidescan sonar
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Side-scan sonar.
Commercial application
For surveying large areas, the GLORIA sidescan sonar was developed by Marconi Underwater Systems and the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS) for NERC. GLORIA stands for Geological Long Range Inclined Asdic. It was used by the US Geological Survey and the IOS in the UK to obtain images of continental shelves worldwide. It operated at relatively low frequencies to obtain long range. Like most side-scan sonars, the GLORIA instrument is towed behind a ship. GLORIA has a ping rate of two per minute, and detects returns from a range of up to 22 km either side of the sonar fish.