Improved Seafloor Geodetic Positioning via Sound Velocity Correction Based on the Precise Round-Trip Acoustic Positioning Model

Abstract Seafloor geodetic positioning is crucial for evaluating the marine geodetic network and monitoring various marine activities. We propose a sound velocity correction method based on the precise round-trip acoustic positioning model to improve the accuracy of seafloor geodetic positioning. The proposed method models the sound velocity error related to sound velocity profile (SVP) deviation and time-varying error and reduces the propagation error of the acoustic rays in the ocean. The SVP deviation and seafloor position parameters are resolved simultaneously by the Bayesian estimation using the round-trip acoustic travel time. The time-varying errors of SVP are corrected through symbolic regression using multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP) even without any accurate pre-specified mathematical form of marine environmental variations. The results from sea trial conducted in the South China Sea at a depth of 3000 m demonstrate that the developed method compensates for the sound velocity errors and improves the positioning precision of the seafloor transponder, with the position difference between different data sets better than 46.12 cm, the standard deviation of acoustic time residuals better than 0.15 ms, and the square root of the variance of the position better than 0.41 cm.