sonobuoy (redirected from Sonar buoys)

sonobuoy [′sän·ə‚bȯi]

(engineering)

An acoustic receiver and radio transmitter mounted in a buoy that can be dropped from an aircraft by parachute to pick up underwater sounds of a submarine and transmit them to the aircraft; to track a submarine, several buoys are dropped in a pattern that includes the known or suspected location of the submarine, with each buoy transmitting an identifiable signal; an electronic computer then determines the location of the submarine by comparison of the received signals and triangulation of the resulting time-delay data. Also known as radio sonobuoy.