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We propose a new method that considers the envelope, phase attributes, and texture analysis of the subbottom profile to automatically obtain continuous and accurate horizon picking. This method overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional methods in envelope and phase automatic horizon picking in terms of accuracy and continuity, and in efficiency when it comes to manual picking. Under the constraint of the envelope threshold from the envelope image and the texture segmentation from the phase image, the accurate envelope horizons are picked from the envelope image. Through mean filtering and template enhancement, the fine phase horizons are picked from the phase image. Finally, by combining the two kinds of picked horizons, more continuous, accurate, and finer horizons are obtained. The proposed method was tested on a real data set. Plain Language Summary: The proposed method considers the complementarity combination of envelope and phase horizon picking and integrates the envelope, phase, and texture attributes, allowing to get better horizons than a single horizon‐picking method. In the proposed method, the envelope horizons constrain the locations of layers and reduce the redundancy of the phase horizons, while the phase horizons avoid the influence of the envelope and guarantee the continuity of the picked horizons. Key Points: The proposed method obtains envelope horizons by combining envelope threshold segmentation on the envelope image and texture segmentation on the phase imageThe proposed method obtains phase horizons by applying template enhancement and horizon tracking to the phase imageThe final horizons can be obtained by combining envelope horizons and phase horizons [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most commonly used acoustic systems in seabed surveys, the altitude of the side scan sonar from the seafloor is always difficult to determine, especially when raw signal levels and gain information are unavailable. The inaccurate sonar altitudes would limit the applications of sonar image geocoding, target detection, and sediment classification. The sonar altitude can be obtained by using bottom tracking methods, but traditional methods often require manual thresholds or complex post-processing procedures, which cannot ensure accurate and real-time bottom tracking. In this paper, a real-time bottom tracking method of side scan data is proposed based on a one-dimensional convolution neural network. First, according to the characteristics of side scan backscatter strength sequences, positive (bottom sequences) and negative (water column and seabed sequences) samples are extracted to establish the sample sets. Second, a one-dimensional convolution neural network is carefully designed and trained by using the sample set to recognize the bottom sequences. Third, a complete processing procedure of the real-time bottom tracking method is established by traversing each side scan ping data and recognizing the bottom sequences. The auxiliary methods for improving real-time performance and sample data augmentation are also explained in detail. The proposed method is implemented on the measured side scan data from the marine area in Meizhou Bay. The trained network model achieves a 100% recognition of the initial sample set as well as 100% bottom tracking accuracy of the training survey line. The average bottom tracking accuracy of the testing survey lines excluding missed pings reaches 99.2%. By comparison with multi-beam bathymetric data and the statistical analysis of real-time performance, the experimental results prove the validity and accuracy of the proposed real-time bottom tracking method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]