The Innomar parametric sub-bottom profilers (SBP, also called "sediment echo sounder") are used to image sub-seabed structures or objects within the seafloor or river beds.

Innomar's narrow-beam parametric sub-bottom profilers provide unequalled high-resolution sub-bottom data while achieving excellent penetration. This product line (Innomar SBP, also known as "SES", "SES-96", "SES-2000") covers all depth ranges and can be used in water depths between less than one meter and full ocean depth. Applications include the geophysical imaging of sediments and sub-seabed structures for dredging purposes, for route and offshore site surveys and to map buried pipelines/cables.

The Innomar paramatric sub-bottom profilers generate the low-frequency sound beam due to non-linear interaction of two high-intensity sound beams at higher frequencies in the water column beneath the transducer. Compared to conventional (linear) sound generation this gives the following advantages:

• Narrow sound beams at low frequencies with small and portable transducers.
• For the same beamwidth the transducer size (area) is typically reduced by a factor of 100, depending on frequencies.
• The half-power beam width is nearly the same for all generated frequencies.
• There are no distinct side lobes for the low-frequent sound beam during transmission, the beam tapers off smoothly. This avoids ambiguities caused by sidelobe-generated spurious signals.
• The high relative bandwidth (80%) results in very short sound pings without significant ringing effects.
• Detection of sediment layers and objects with high resolution.
• Accurate water depth determination due to high-frequent channel of primary frequencies.
• Lower received reverberation levels, resulting in better penetration.

Compared to conventional towed systems there are additional benefits of the hull- or pole-mounted parametric transducers like

• no deployment or recovery of tow fishes,
• better position accuracy,
• higher availability due to increased weather window,
• better survey efficiency due to higher possible survey speed,
• improved vessel manoeuvrability.

Innomar joins the the NORBIT Seahorse Multibeam Survey Training to showcase our SBPs.

Please click HERE to get mor information on the event and how to register

Innomar will exhibit at the 16^th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection in Ghent / Belgium, September 15-20, 2025.

The next Innomar user workshop "Seabed Acoustics" will take place 5/6th November 2025 in Rostock (Germany) as a joint event held by Innomar and Norbit Subsea.

Please see the event page for details and to register ...