The Sonar Registration and Analyzing System, SONRAS, is a complete system for receiving, recording/storing, listen, analyzing and displaying acoustic signals in the sea. The system consists of two main parts:
- The battery-operated SONRAS buoy, containing all necessary electronics and processing power for receiving and amplifying signals from the hydrophone, digitizing, storing, analyzing in frequency bands and transmitting data to the ship borne control station. The buoy is GPS positioned.
- SONRAS Control Station (SCS) on board the ship for remote control of buoy settings and display of analyzed data. The control station is GPS positioned, and radio modems are used as the communication link between the buoy and the control station. The control station consists of a separate Pelicase comprising electronics and a front panel with connectors and buttons. A computer with dedicated SONRAS software for control, monitoring and analyzing is connected to the control station.
The SONRAS buoy is capable of continuously registering signals and noise in the sea. The recorded acoustics will be stored as wave-files. The standard SONRAS edition will cover all frequencies from 5 Hz to 100 kHz, support for higher frequency range is possible on demand.
Low noise hydrophone preamplifiers together with high resolution A/D converters and programmable amplifiers give a total dynamic range from ambient noise level up to very noisy test objects.
Both raw data and processed data can be encrypted and stored in the buoy for later retrieval and analysis. A complete plot of GPS positions is also stored in the buoy and the relative distance is computed in the SCS for normalizing the noise data.
An audio channel is available for real-time monitoring of the acoustic signals. The monitor channel is however somewhat limited in frequency response, due to the radio bandwidth.
The buoy batteries have sufficient capacity for 8 hours of operation and additionally 24 hours for transmitting the buoy position in case of recovering problems.
Scanmatic may customize SONRAS for customer’s need.
SONRAS container opened, with buoy and separate Pelicases for Control Station, hydrophone assembly and accessories, as well as computer in bag.