Patent ID: 9588246
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: G01V

Claim:
1. A data collection system for estimating a corrected sound speed between a first point and a second point, the system comprising: a position determining apparatus arranged to generate, when in use, position data; a subsea acoustic transponder beacon disposed at a fixed position relative to a seabed; an acoustic transceiver immersed below a sea surface and above the acoustic beacon; a processing resource operably coupled to the acoustic transceiver; and the acoustic transceiver is arranged to traverse a path above the acoustic beacon and execute a plurality of communications with the acoustic beacon while traversing the path, the acoustic transceiver being arranged to execute the plurality of communications comprising: the acoustic transceiver being arranged to transmit a plurality of acoustic interrogation signals to the acoustic beacon while traversing the path; and the acoustic beacon being arranged to receive the respective interrogation signals and to transmit a respective plurality of acoustic response signals in response thereto; wherein the processing resource is arranged to use the plurality of time data and position data in order to model a profile of the corrected sound speed as a function of horizontal distance from a position of the acoustic beacon, the function being a higher order function than a linear function.