Utilization of aspect angle information in synthetic aperture images

Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) involves the creation of high resolution images of a scene via scattered signals recorded at different locations. Each pixel of the reconstructed image includes information obtained from multiple aspects due to the changing position of the sources/receivers. The aspect dependent scattering at each pixel may be exploited to provide additional information about the scene; we will present a framework for converting and utilizing multi-aspect data, as well as several examples. This aspect dependency may be leveraged to separate objects of interest from the background, to understand the local bathymetry, or for visualizing acoustic shadowing in circular aperture sonar (CSAS) images. Additionally, the aspect dependence of low-frequency elastic scattering from objects may be used to understand underlying scattering physics; a laboratory example is presented.