sidescanpy.io.sdf

Klein Marine Systems SDF (Sonar Data File) reader.

Parses Klein SDF files: a sequence of fixed-format pages, each with a 4-byte sync marker followed by a 512-byte header and variable-length sonar data.

This module provides:

• SDFSonarPage — typed dataclass for sonar data pages (versions 3501 and 3502; low- and high-frequency channels).

• read_sdf() / read_sdf_iter() — read pages from a file.

• convert() — convert pages into a SideScanSurvey.

Klein conventions captured here:

• Position fields (latitude/longitude) are stored as float64 in radians; this module converts to degrees on parse.

• Attitude fields (heading/pitch/roll) are stored as float32 in degrees; no unit conversion needed.

• Page sizes in the header exclude the 4-byte marker; total page on disk is page_size_field + 4.

• Year is normally 4-digit (e.g. 2026); some firmware stores offset-from-1900. Auto-detected via < 200 check.

The SDF page of the documentation describes the field mapping and quirks.

2026 rshomberg@uri.edu

Modules

• converter
• pages
• reader
• split
• targets