What are the advantages and disadvantages of sonar?

Answer 1

The main drawback of SONAR Technology (but will not affect anything in a small-scale setting) is the DOPPLER EFFECT. Your SONAR TX/RX must have to compensate from the DOPPLER EFFECT once your origin or destination is starting to move. But if we're talking about a stanionery source AND destination the DOPPLER EFFECT will have no cause/effect whatsoever.

Also, just to bring it out, the environment wherein your SONAR is working is a big consideration regarding its performance.

Hope it helps.

Regards,

RT

Answer 2

ADVANTAGES

Sound NAvigation and Ranging-SONAR-is used to find and identify objects in water. It is also used determine water depth (bathymetry). Sonar is applied to water-based activities because sound waves attenuate (taper off) less in water as they travel than do radar and light waves. Sonar was first used during World War I to detect submarines. By the 1920s, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey-the precursor to NOAA's National Ocean Service-was using it to map deep-water areas. The technology steadily improved, and by World War II, was used once again for military purposes.

DISADVANTAGES

Surprisingly there are some disadvantages to this technology. SONAR waves can interfere with whale and dolphin echolocation. Many marine species, such as whales, depend on sound to find their food, to communicate with their mates and young, and to navigate in the oceans. Imagine a sound so loud traveling such long distances that it can kill or seriously damage sensitive ears and drown out all other sounds. The Navy has pronounced the LFA Sonar system impacts as "negligible," "minimal," and "not biologically significant." But they don't really know, because the sound levels produced by LFA Sonar have never been tested on marine life. Furthermore, a number of incidents of stricken whales connected with local use of Navy Sonar systems from around the world have emerged.

LFA Sonar not only threatens sensitive marine life such as whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions, sea turtles, and fisheries. It is a threat to humans as well - divers and the military, and, when used inshore as Earth Island believes is the main objective, swimmers, surfers, fishermen, and snorkelers, too. Besides, it simply won't work strategically to protect the Navy, as giving out such loud sounds will act as a beacon for any lurking "enemy" for targeting purposes. The LFA sonar will also reveal "friendly" Navy submarines to our opponents. In a world of cruise missiles with pinpoint accuracy and "smart" torpedoes, not to mention low-tech terrorism, LFA Sonar is an obsolete relic of the Cold War. As alternatives, the Navy has developed new passive listening systems that are much more sophisticated at detecting submarines and which pose little threat to the environment.

Additional Information

Some sonar equipment has only a limited range of what it is able to sense and display. If you are a sailor, cruiser, fisherman, or part of a water search and rescue team, you know the many risks involved in taking a boat out in the water. It's very hard to tell what is beneath the surface of the water if you do not have the proper equipment to help you navigate. Superb sonar and GPS units are manufactured by the likes of Interphase, Clairon, and Garmin. Such equipment helps to avoid pinnacles, rock outcroppings, and coral heads, finding shallow water channels and ledges, tracking bottom structures and wrecks, spot submerged containers and whales ahead, find safe passages through reefs, avoid running aground in shallow water, and to spot schools of fish. Make sure that the range of the sonar that you select is a wide one that can look both below and ahead of the boat.