a system for determining a position at sea, esp that of survivors of a disaster, by exploding a charge underwater at that point. The times taken for the shock waves to travel through the water to three widely separated shore stations are used to calculate their position
Word origin
C20: from so(und) f(ixing) a(nd) r(anging)
sofar in American English
(ˈsoʊˌfɑr)
US
noun
system for locating the site of an underwater explosion by calculations of the time the sound vibrations take to reach several shore stations