The Baltic Sea is characterized by variable hydroacoustic conditions, which depend on hydrological conditions throughout the year. The temperature of the water is the factor that has the greatest impact on the changes in the speed of the sound in this basin. Even at a small depth, we can observe a large temperature gradient affecting the accuracy of the conducted research using hydroacoustic devices. A characteristic feature of...

The interest in underwater resources is the reason for the development of modern hydroacoustic systems, including side sonars, which find numerous applications such as: research of seabed morphology and sediment characteristics, preparation of sea sediment maps, and even in special cases of biocenoses such as sea grass meadows, detection of specific targets at the bottom such as shipwrecks, mines, identification of suitable sites...

This paper is mainly aimed at presentation of an impact of environmental conditions on imaging accuracy by using hydro-acoustic systems in waters of a high non-uniformity of spatial distribution of hydrological parameters. Impact of refraction on erroneous estimation of range, in case of wave radiation into water under a large angle, like in side sonars or multi-beam echo-sounders, is especially important. In this paper seasonal...