On the basis of analysis on scattering model of sidescan sonar imaging

theoretical basis for the Rayleigh distribution of seafloor reverberation is given. The rationality of other typical probability distributions is analyzed

and the methods for parameter estimating of the mentioned probability distributions are given. The best fitting of several typical probability distributions are tested and compared by experiments. The experimental results show that the Weibull distribution is generally more accurate

and the Rayleigh distribution still has a good fitting characteristic. The research results can provide an important basis for seabed segmentation of sidescan sonar images.