Small Synthetic Aperture Minehunter systems work on a range of wavelengths, providing fine-grain imaging of the seafloor and of small man-made objects as well as peering into the seabed to provide imagery and analysis of buried objects.
The SSAM II module used at BaltOps "provides higher resolution and is intended to hunt bottom mines," said Navy Lt. Matthew Stroup, public affairs officer for the BaltOps 2019 Mine Warfare Task Group.
SSAM II "has two modes; linear [synthetic aperture sonar] mode for rapid search and circular SAS, which provides very high-resolution images to enable" reacquiring and identification, Stroup added.
Autonomous Topographic Large Area Survey forward-looking sonar, known as ATLAS, has a wide search-area width that's meant for volume mine-hunting, Stroup said. It can also be used to gather information, including mapping of clutter and large-object detection on the seafloor and to gauge ocean depth.