This paper investigates an efficient hydrophone array configuration based on a cylindrical two-helix layout with Fibonacci-guided (golden-angle) azimuthal spacing, coupled with a phase-error compensation stage that estimates and removes motion-induced terms prior to image reconstruction in synthetic aperture sonar (SAS). The Fibonacci guidance promotes near-uniform coverage in azimuth as the helices progress, while the cylinder’s controlled vertical extent avoids sensitivity to out-of-plane rotations. Together, these traits limit phase variability that must be corrected and reduce mainlobe broadening and sidelobe inflation caused by rotational platform motions (roll, pitch, yaw). To keep the study concise and reproducible, we evaluate a configuration using paired before/after tests for roll, pitch, and yaw under fixed metric windows and identical visualization scales. The analysis shows how geometry and compensation act in concert: golden-angle pacing improves sampling uniformity along the helical traces, and the targeted estimation step removes the residual phase components that most impact image quality before back-projection. For these rotational degrees of freedom, peak sidelobe level improves on average by about 9 dB, integrated sidelobe level by about 10 dB, PSNR increases by roughly 12 dB, and RMSE decreases by approximately 75%, collectively indicating a clear, practically meaningful upgrade in SAS image quality.

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