Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (12): 2328-2337.doi: 10.11947/j.AGCS.2024.20230551

• Marine Survey • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Impact of the horizontal gradient of sound speed on seafloor geodetic positioning

Jie ZHOU1,2(), Shuqiang XUE1,3(), Zhen XIAO4, Ying XU2, Kaiming WANG1, Jingsen LI1   

  1. 1.Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping, Beijing 100036, China
    2.College of Geodesy and Geomatics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266100, China
    3.State Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Engineering, Xi'an 710054, China
    4.School of Space Science and Physics, Shandong University (Weihai), Weihai 264200, China
  • Received:2023-11-27 Online:2025-01-06 Published:2025-11-06
  • Contact: Shuqiang XUE E-mail:202282020044@sdust.edu.cn;xuesq@casm.ac.cn
  • About author:ZHOU Jie (2000—), male, master, majors in marine geodesy. E-mail: 202282020044@sdust.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    The National Natural Science Foundation of China(41931076);The Scientific and Technology Innovation Program of Laoshan Laboratory(LSKJ202205100);The National Key Research and Development Program of China(2020YFB0505802);The Basic Scientific Research Foundation of the Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping(AR2313)

Abstract:

The complex and dynamic marine environment results in a sound speed structure characterized by distinct vertical stratification. Additionally, influenced by oceanographic processes such as warm currents and internal waves, the sound speed field exhibits significant horizontal gradients, which are critical factors affecting high-precision underwater positioning. In this paper, the impact of horizontal gradients in the sound speed field on underwater positioning is investigated based on a three-dimensional ray-tracing positioning model, and the definition of the average gradient of the sound speed field and its inversion model are presented. Then the main factors influencing the accuracy of horizontal gradient inversion are further analyzed. The results indicate that positioning errors are closely related to the direction of the horizontal gradient, the location of seafloor transponders, and the size of the surface trajectory network. When the magnitude of the horizontal gradient reaches 10-5 (m/s/m), it can lead to positioning errors exceeding decimeter level in deep sea environments at depths of 3000 m. The seafloor positioning model considering the horizontal gradient parameters of the sound speed field can significantly enhance positioning accuracy. Moreover, the estimation of the horizontal gradient parameter in the average sense can achieve centimeter-level precision positioning.

Key words: horizontal gradient, underwater positioning, 3D acoustic ray tracing, average gradient, positioning error, parameter inversion

CLC Number: