I have a single beam echosounder that I use to measure the distance to an object underwater. It emits an acoustic pulse and listens to the reflections. Using the time of flight and the strongest reflected pulse, the distance can be calculated. But since the beam is actually a cone (in my case with a beam angle of about 5 degrees), the intersection between the object and the beam is more than a point.
I would like to know if in this configuration it is correct to assume that the strongest reflected pulse is from the closest point to the sonar?
