When would you use MAS vs SAS?
Solstice MAS was built to operate in small, man-portable platforms and therefore offers significant advantages compared to SAS. Solstice measures only 682mm long and weights approximately 7 kgs in air including the electronics. The power requirement is typically 18W which is significantly lower than any typical SAS normally starting at 50W with no on-board processing. It is simpler to operate, with Solstice the range of the sonar remains constant at 100m either side, with SAS the area coverage rate remains constant meaning that as the platform accelerates, the range of the SAS decreases. This makes mission planning for SAS very complex, particularly in tidal areas where changing water currents may impact the platform speed. SAS is also known to be very sensitive to platform instability or operating over complex seafloor environments. Solstice MAS does not have this problem.
Can I operate multiple Solstices side-by-side?
Solstice can be used at three different centre frequencies meaning that three AUVs can work together without mutual interference. This makes mission planning significantly simpler for systems using multiple AUVs.
What is Solstices effective area coverage rate?
Solstice offers an effective area coverage rate (ACR) that is unmatched for a side-scan sonar designed for mine-hunting operations or unexploded ordnance surveys. At 6 knots and using no gap filler the effective ACR is 1.63 km2/hr.
Why do we consider Solstice data to be mine-hunting ready across the whole swath?
Solstice has been designed to produce high-contrast imagery even in very shallow water, eliminating noise from multi-path reverberation, enhancing the contrast of the imagery. It employs a unique array technology which allows wide swath coverage normally associated with wide vertical beamwidth, whilst providing the shadow contrast associated with very narrow vertical beams. The result is higher-fidelity images enabling higher certainty decision making.
