Detection of an underwater target through modulated lidar experiments at grazing incidence in a deep wave basin.

The effectiveness of a pulsed radiofrequency modulated lidar and associated processing for underwater target detection at grazing incidence was experimentally assessed in a wave basin 50 m long and 20 m deep, under different conditions of swell produced within this facility to benefit from a controlled interface. This paper reports our experiments and offline data processing results, and describes significant improvements in the probability of detection that demonstrate the interest of using such a technique in this context.