The use of ultrasound for diagnostic imaging, therapeutic applications, and for other medical applications continues to grow. Ultrasound operates by subjecting the target region of the patient to ultrasonic wave energy and receiving and processing information about echoing or back-scattered ultrasound waves. Such ultrasound may be pulsed or continuous and may be performed in conjunction with contrast agents, for example. Ultrasonic systems that generate diagnostic images of the target region typically operate by transmitting the ultrasonic waves into the patient with a transducer, and receiving reflected or echo signals from acoustic impedance changes in the patient. These systems then analyze the acoustic information and perform imaging or non-imaging related computations to generate diagnostic images of the target region. Ultrasound has certain advantages over other diagnostic imaging modalities. For example, ultrasound is low cost and does not employ harmful or expensive radiation sources. Ultrasound is currently the most common type of diagnostic imaging used in obstetrics, providing important benefits to both mother and child. Ultrasound has significant applications in medical imaging as well as other industries, such as the non-destructive testing of structures, and the like. Because of its success in many areas, there continues to be a need for improved ultrasound systems, and in particular, for improved imaging systems. There also continues to be a need for methods of controlling the operation of such systems, such as controlling the manner in which different components of the system function and interact. There is a further need to obtain better ultrasonic images in a wide variety of applications. In particular, there is a need for more accurate and real-time images. There is a further need to obtain such images with high sensitivity to speed of sound (“SOS”) variations in tissue, which is often a problem for ultrasound imaging because of the speed and wavelength of ultrasonic waves, and other effects. For example, high SOS variations in tissue may produce errors in the estimation of speed of sound using one dimensional (1D) imaging techniques. Similarly, high SOS variations may affect conventional two-dimensional (2D) frequency compounding techniques. There is a need to obtain high-resolution ultrasound images using more robust techniques. Although ultrasonic waves are of great benefit in many applications, there are also drawbacks. An important drawback to ultrasound imaging techniques is the attenuation of the ultrasonic waves in tissue. With the attenuation of the ultrasonic waves in the body, signal strength decreases and increases in distance between the ultrasonic probe and the area of the body being imaged. This attenuation, caused by the properties of the tissue, limits the depth of an image that can be obtained by an ultrasound probe. The maximum depth of a conventional B-mode ultrasound image is typically less than one inch. However, when tissue is placed in a liquid, such as when a needle is placed in tissue, the attenuation of the ultrasonic waves is reduced and the maximum depth of the ultrasound image increases. The effect of placing tissue in a liquid, such as a water bath, is to cause the decrease in ultrasonic wave attenuation that results from having a liquid interposed between the probe and the area of tissue. By removing tissue from a body, such as when tissue is being excised, imaging depth is reduced. The effect of removing tissue from a body is to cause the increase in ultrasonic wave attenuation that results from no longer having tissue between the probe and the area being imaged. Additionally, when high power ultrasonic waves are used, such as in a therapeutic procedure, the destruction of tissue and/or removal of tissue can result in excessive ultrasonic wave attenuation or a high amount of ultrasonic wave attenuation in the area of the tissue where the procedure is being performed. These undesirable results can prevent the use of ultrasonic imaging as well as other desired applications. There is a need for high power ultrasonic imaging that can provide images of tissue over a larger depth range. Additionally, there is a need for ultrasonic imaging techniques that can be used for therapeutic procedures. Traditionally, ultrasound systems have been primarily limited to one-dimensional (1D) or two-dimensional (2D) applications. However, there is a desire to provide three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound images with better performance and ease of use. One type of 3D imaging is 3D synthetic aperture focusing, which is often used for imaging of a volumetric target region. Synthetic aperture focusing is well-known, and employs phase differences between multiple phase sensitive or focused channels to improve lateral resolution. Each phase sensitive channel provides a phase angle, and the phase sensitive channels provide an image resolution that is the same as the individual channel resolution, but with a synthetic aperture size that is equal to the number of channels, i.e., channels of coherent information. This type of synthetic aperture focusing has been used for a 2D transducer array or an annular array of transducers. Such synthetic aperture focusing provides volumetric information, but requires many phase sensitive channels for 3D imaging and higher resolution, thus resulting in reduced transducer array density and increased transducer array size. There is also a need for ultrasound systems that can obtain a variety of sonographic and non-sonographic data from tissue in a wide variety of applications. More specifically, there is a need for systems that are capable of generating 3D imaging, obtaining 3D image data, obtaining speed of sound data from a tissue, controlling the operation of a wide variety of components of the system, and processing image data obtained by the system. The present invention is directed to addressing one or more of these needs, and to overcoming one or more of the problems or disadvantages associated with imaging systems or other types of systems.