Larry Steven Marx

US Patent:

44109660, Oct 18, 1983

Filed:

May 8, 1981

Appl. No.:

6/261764

Inventors:

Raymond A. Meyer - Thousand Oaks CA
Larry F. Marx - Bellevue WA
John E. Brugger - Hightstown NJ

Assignee:

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of
Environmental Protection Agency - Washington DC

International Classification:

G01S 1502
G01S 752

US Classification:

367 87

Abstract:

A method and apparatus for locating and mapping a pool of a pollutant (12) in a body of water (11) comprising the steps of scanning the bottom of said body of water with ultrasonic energy using a transducer (10) periodically pulsed to project pulse envelopes of acoustic energy downwardly to the bottom (14) of the body of water and receiving echo returns from the bottom preceded by echo returns from a reflective interface (13) with a pool of pollutant, if present. The presence of an echo return from an interface (13) as a precursor to an echo return from the bottom indicates the presence of the pool of pollutant at the navigational position of the transducer as the process of scanning continues. Locating and marking the perimeter of the pool permits rapid clean up operations to be directed.