Does dissolved oxygen impact the signal?
Small oxygen bubbles resulting from wind or currents mixing the surface water or released from plants can impact the return of the sound wave. For systems such as RoxAnn™, which runs an algorithm to determine hardness of the seafloor, oxygen bubbles can alter the return of a sound wave off of a feature because oxygen bubbles reflect a signal that is interpreted as hard. For example, on a very sunny day, actively photosynthesizing seagrasses will release oxygen into the water column. The gas bubbles may collect on the leaves of the plant. The seagrass leaves, although not a hard feature, will reflect a signal that is interpreted as hard and the seagrasses may be misclassified as a result. What are some sources of noises in the water column and how do they influence the data? Strong currents and waves, and boat engines are some sources of noise in the water column. Adjusting the frequency range of the signal and positioning the transducer appropriately can help eliminate these sources of
