A New Method to Explore the Marine Topography by Gravity Gradiometry

Abstract

It is very dangerous for AUV and other vehicles to traverse through the ocean, where there are many barriers. Some technologies such as active sonar and blue-green lasers can not be used to explore these barriers in some special realm, because signal is sent out during the exploring. In order to solve this problem, a new method by using the character of the submarine topography will engender gravity gradient is proposed. An example of calculate the gravity gradient of a subulate topography is given, from the example can find that the gravity gradient aroused by the barrier is very large and can be observed by the gradiometer easily, the result proved the method of this paper is feasible. This study provided a new method for the underwater carrier to avoidance collision, and the method has passive and all-weather characters.