Sonar for Practising Engineers

Rating:
Summary: A compulsary read for anyone working with sonar
Review: There are many myths regarding sonar, in both civilian and military applications. The perhaps best known ones are provided by Tom Clancy in his book/movie "The Hunt for Red October". While sonarman Jones and his $40 million computer make great additions to that story, they have little to do with reality.

This book, on the other hand, has everything to do with reality. It describes the working principles of sonar in as simple terms as possible. The explanations and mathematics are kept on a level where any electrical engineer can follow it, and the material is still general enough so that even renowned researchers on underwater acoustics can learn from it.

To me, one of the greatest assets with this book is that it so clearly shows

- what real-life sonars do
- how they do it
- why they do it like that
- what problems are encountered

This is information that is hard to come by elsewhere, and give rise to all sorts of speculations when lacking. The book is as relevant to navy sonars as civilian ones.