Interface wave generated by an electromagnetic induction source

Interface waves such as the Scholte wave are a useful tool to study geoacoustic properties and can be conventionally generated by an explosive or a pneumatic source on/above the seafloor. This type of source, however, generates strong compressional waves in the water and sediment at the same time; these waves then disturb an observation of interface waves and leads to difficulty in processing. These sources are also relatively hard to control at sea from a viewpoint of repeatability and stability of interface waves to be generated. In addition, environmental problems caused by those sources is a concern. In this paper, an electromagnetic induction source whose vibrator plate hits the seafloor directly and excites interface waves is described. The capability of this source was evaluated both in a water tank and at seashore. The pulsed Scholte waves excited both by several types of electromagnetic induction source having a different shape of vibrator plate and by dropping weight were transmitted in sediment and received using geophones. As a result of comparison of measured signals, the pulse signal propagating from the source demonstrates a sharper rise time than that from dropping weight     

基于海底表层沉积物声速特征的南海地声模型

在由垂直声速梯度建立的地声模型基础上,通过引入沉积物与海水声速比和沉积物压缩波与切变波声速比两个表征沉积物声学特征参数得到更全面和有实际指导意义的地声模型。在沉积物声波传播FCMCM模型基础上,基于热作用和重力作用下沉积物两相介质的应力应变分析,建立TFCMCM和DFCFCM模型,运用模型校正表层沉积物声速特征来计算和解释地声模型。根据海底表层沉积物存在低声速和高声速两种类型,结合沉积物沿纵深孔隙度不变和变化两种类型,得到南海海底沉积物的两类四种典型地声模型:低声速孔隙度不变型、低声速孔隙度减小型、高声速不变型和高声速孔隙度减小型。运用这四种典型地声模型的组合解释了卢博提出的南海三种典型声速结构。认知声速结构将为南海声学探测海底、划分海底区域提供模型支持。     

Matched-field inversion for geoacoustic model parameters in shallowwater

Matched-field inversion is used to, estimate geoacoustic properties from data obtained in an experiment with a vertical line array (VLA). The experiment was carried out using broad-band sources (shots) in water depths of about 200 m on the continental shelf off Vancouver Island. The data were processed to obtain spectral components of the field for frequencies near the bubble frequency for the shot. The ocean bottom in this region consists of a layer of mainly sandy sediments (about 100 m thick) overlying older consolidated material. Consequently, the inversion was designed to estimate the parameters of a two-layer elastic sediment model. In the inversion, an adaptive global search algorithm was used to investigate the multidimensional space of geoacoustic models in order to determine the set of values corresponding to the best replica field. Convergence is driven by adaptively guiding the search to regions of the parameter space associated with above-average values of the matched field correlation between the measured and replica fields. The geoacoustic profile estimated by the inversion consisted of a 125-m layer with compressional speed ~1700 m/s and shear speed ~400 m/s, overlying a layer with compressional speed ~1900 m/s. This model is consistent with the results from conventional seismic experiments carried out in the same region     

海底沉积物的基本地声结构与地声模型

为准确建立海底地声模型,本文探讨地声模型的基本组成和基本结构。通过样品实验室测量,分析南海海底表层沉积物的密度、孔隙度与声速随着埋深变化的关系,得出海底实际存在的低声速表面–声速缓慢变化类型、低声速表面–声速增大类型、高声速表面–声速缓慢变化类型和高声速表面–声速增大类型4种典型地声结构;对比钻探测量,分析黄海海底沉积物的密度、孔隙度与声速随埋深变化关系,得出海底地声模型分层特征与地声结构组合特征。研究表明,地声模型可以归结为4种基本地声结构的组合,通过与底层海水声速、同层内声速剖面以及与上层海底沉积物下表面声速的比较,可以建立各种海底地声模型;基于实验室测量法建立的地声模型可以作为参考地声模型,但需要考虑实际海底温度和压力梯度以及海底沉积物的频散特性等,借助于声速比校正法和频散性理论模型进行计算及修正。     

In situ and laboratory geoacoustic measurements in soft mud and hard-packed sand sediments: Implications for high-frequency acoustic propagation and scattering

Near-surface sediment geoacoustic and physical properties were measured in gas-rich, muddy sediments of Eckernförde Bay, Baltic Sea, and in hard-packed, sandy sediments of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Values of compressional and shear wave velocity are much lower in muddy compared to sandy sediments. The spatial and temporal variability of sediment physical and geoacoustic properties and, as a consequence, the scattering and propagation of high-frequency acoustic waves are primarily related to the presence and absence of free methane gas bubbles at the muddy site and to the abundance and distribution of shell material on sandy sediments.     

海底表层沉积物声速特性研究进展与探讨

海底表层沉积物具有多相、多颗粒、多形态的组成结构,导致其声学特性复杂多样。通过分析压缩波速度和切变波速度特性的研究现状,指出有待于解决的科学问题和关键技术问题。在分析国内外有关海底沉积层声速特性研究基础上,提出采取系统、可控的实验测量手段解决当前测量存在的4点问题。综合分析了压缩波速度和切变波速度存在的统计回归关系和理论分析关系,探讨了当前地声反演、采样样品声学测量、原位声学测量3种方法存在的测量尺度、测量频率、测量状态等的差异,探讨建立不同测量方法和测量技术对测量结果进行统一性解释的方法,从而获得不同类型、不同区域的海底表层沉积物真实的声速特性。最后,从实验室声学测量、物理力学参数测量、流固耦合特性分析、原位测量及海底监测、采样测量与原位测量的误差分析及校正、海底大纵深声学测量6个方面提出技术需求,为提高声学探测海洋和海底的精度服务,推动海洋声学探测和海洋工程发展。     

Geoacoustic and physical properties of carbonate sediments of the Lower Florida Keys

 Near-surface sediment geoacoustic and physical properties were measured from a variety of unconsolidated carbonate sediments in the Lower Florida Keys. Surficial values of compressional and shear speed correlate with sediment physical properties and near-surface acoustic reflectivity. Highest speeds (shear 125–150 m s^-1; compressional 1670–1725 m s^-1) are from sandy sediments near Rebecca Shoal and lowest speeds (shear 40–65 m s^-1; compressional 1520–1570 m s^-1) are found in soft, silty sediments which collect in sediment ponds in the Southeast Channel of the Dry Tortugas. High compressional wave attenuation is attributed to scattering of acoustic waves from heterogeneity caused by accumulation of abundant shell material and other impedance discontinuities rather than high intrinsic attenuation. Compared to siliciclastic sediments, carbonate sediment shear wave speed is high for comparable values of sediment physical properties. Sediment fabric, rather than changes due to the effects of biogeochemical processes, is responsible for these differences.     

含砂量变化影响海底沉积物压缩波速度的分析研究

本文通过对南海海底沉积物样品的声学物理参数和沉积粒度特征统计分析,发现了高、低含砂量沉积物的声学物理特征存在明显差异,建立了海底沉积物的含砂量与压缩波速度、孔隙度、含水量和密度等经验公式,分析了含砂量变化与沉积物的体积压缩模量和密度变化的关系,从声速理论基础上阐明了含砂量变化引起沉积物压缩波速度变化的内在原因是含砂量变化引起了体积压缩模量和密度发生了变化,说明了含砂量增大引起沉积物压缩波速度增大的内在原因是含砂量增大引起了体积压缩模量变化量大于密度变化量,从而在数据统计和理论分析结合基础上,论证了含砂量是影响海底沉积物压缩波速度的重要因素之一。这一研究对声学方法反演海底沉积物粒度参数和沉积物类型、地声参数转换模型的建立,以及对水声反演海底和海底资源勘探等方面都具有重要理论意义和应用价值。     

Geoacoustic model parameter estimation using a bottom-moored hydrophone array

This paper describes results from an experiment carried out to investigate geoacoustic inversion with a bottom-moored hydrophone array located in the shallow waters of the Timor Sea off the northern coast of Australia. The array consisted of two arms in a V shape, horizontally moored at a site that was essentially flat over a large area. Hydrophone positions were estimated using an array element localization (AEL) technique that established relative uncertainties of less than 1 m on the seafloor. The data used for geoacoustic inversion were from experiments with continuous wave (CW) tones in the 80- to 195-Hz band transmitted from a towed projector. A hybrid search algorithm determined the set of geoacoustic model parameters that maximized the Bartlett fit (averaged coherently spatially at each tone and incoherently over frequency) between the measured and modeled data at the array. Due to the long range experimental geometry, the inversion was sensitive to attenuation in the sediment. The inverted geoacoustic profile performed well in a simple test for localizing the sound source at other sites in the vicinity of the array. Range-depth localization performance for the horizontal array was comparable to that for an equivalent vertical array.     

Estimates of geoacoustic model parameters from inversions of horizontal and vertical line array data

This paper describes results from geoacoustic inversion of low-frequency acoustic data recorded at a receiving array divided into two sections, a sparse bottom laid horizontal array (HLA) and a vertical array (VLA) deployed in shallow water. The data are from an experiment conducted by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) in the Barents Sea, using broadband explosives (shot) sources. A two-layer range-independent geoacoustic model, consistent with seismic profiles from the area, described the environment. Inversion for geoacoustic model parameters was carried out using a fast implementation of the hybrid adaptive simplex simulated annealing (ASSA) inversion algorithm, with replica fields computed by the ORCA normal mode code. Low-frequency (40-128 Hz) data from six shot sources at ranges 3-9 km from the array were considered. Estimates of sediment and substrate p-wave velocities and sediment thickness were found to be consistent between independent inversions of data from the two sections of the array.     

Broad-band geoacoustic inversion in shallow water from waveguideimpulse response measurements on a single hydrophone: theory andexperimental results

The paper discusses an inversion method that allows the rapid determination of in situ geoacoustic properties of the ocean bottom without resorting to large acoustic receiving apertures, synthetic or real. The method is based on broad-band waterborne measurements and modeling of the waveguide impulse response between a controlled source and a single hydrophone. Results from Yellow Shark '94 experiments in Mediterranean shallow waters using single elements of a vertical array are reviewed, inversion of the bottom parameters is performed with an objective function that includes the processing gain of a model-based matched filter (MBMF) receiver relative to the conventional matched filter. The MBMF reference signals incorporate waveguide Green's functions for known geometry and water column acoustic model and hypothesized bottom geoacoustic models. The experimental inversion results demonstrated that, even for complex environmental conditions, a single transmission of a broad-band (200-800 Hz) coded signal received at a single depth and a few hundred forward modeling runs were sufficient to correctly resolve the bottom features. These included the sound speed profile, attenuation, density, and thickness of the top clay sediment layer, and sound speed and attenuation of the silty clay bottom. Exhaustive parameter search proved unequivocally the low-ambiguity and high-resolution properties of the MBMF-derived objective. The single-hydrophone results compare well with those obtained under identical conditions from matched-field processing of multitone pressure fields sampled on the vertical array. Both of these results agree with expectations from geophysical ground truth. The MBMF has been applied successfully to a field of advanced drifting acoustic buoys on the Western Sicilian shelf, demonstrating the general applicability of the inversion method presented     

Geoacoustic Uncertainties From Viscoelastic Inversion of Seabed Reflection Data

This paper applies nonlinear Bayesian inversion to seabed reflection data to estimate viscoelastic parameters of the upper sediments. The inversion provides maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) parameter estimates with uncertainties quantified in terms of marginal probability distributions, variances, and credibility intervals; interparameter relationships are quantified by correlations and joint marginal distributions. The inversion is applied to high-resolution reflectivity data from two sites in the Strait of Sicily. One site is characterized by low-speed sediments, resulting in data with a well-defined angle of intromission; the second is characterized by high-speed sediments, resulting in a critical angle. Data uncertainties are quantified using several approaches, including maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation, treating uncertainties as nuisance parameters in the inversion, and analysis of experimental errors. Statistical tests are applied to the data residuals to validate the assumed uncertainty distributions. Excellent results (i.e., small uncertainties) are obtained for sediment compressional-wave speed, compressional attenuation, and density; shear parameters are less well determined although low shear-wave speeds are indicated. The Bayesian analysis provides a quantitative comparison of inversion results for the two sites in terms of the resolution of specific geoacoustic parameters, and indicates that the geoacoustic information content is significantly higher for intromission data     

Physical and numerical modeling of reflections from interfaces and thin layers

Basic models for understanding the reflection of seismic waves by the seafloor or the sublayering consist of isolated interfaces and isolated thin layers. An isolated interface model is used to demonstrate a reasonable agreement between physical modeling and two numerical solutions of the elastic wave equation. An isolated thin-layer model is used to show that reflections from it can be regarded as a scattered wavefield caused by three secondary sources proportional toDeltaM,-Deltamu, and,Deltarhoat each element of the layer, whereDelta, indicates the difference between the layer and the surroundings,Mis the compressional wave modulus,muis the shear wave modulus, andrhois the density. This viewpoint leads to a simple explanation of the observed variations in amplitude and phase of the reflected waves as the offset distance from source to receiver increases.     

Application of an improved self-starter to geoacoustic inversion

The self-starter is improved using the operator of the split-step Pade solution. In addition to providing greater stability and being applicable closer to the source, the improved self-starter is an efficient forward model for geoacoustic inversion. It is necessary to solve only O(10) tridiagonal systems of equations to obtain the acoustic field on a vertical array located O(10) wavelengths from a source. This experimental configuration is effective for geoacoustic inverse problems involving unknown parameters deep in the ocean bottom. For problems involving depth-dependent acoustic parameters, the improved self-starter can be used to solve nonlinear inverse problems involving O(10) unknown sediment parameters in less than a minute on the current generation of workstations     

Estimation of Seabed Properties Using Ambient Noise from Shallow Water Sites of the Indian Continental Shelf

In this study an attempt has been made to extract sediment geoacoustic properties using ambient noise measured from a vertical hydrophone array. Time series noise data recorded from three shallow water sites (Chennai, Cuddalore and Cochin) along the Indian continental shelf were used for the analysis. The compressional sound speed of sediment for all the sites was estimated from the vertical directionality of ambient noise. Using the value of the compressional sound speed remaining wave properties and material properties were deduced from the Grain-Shearing (G-S) theory of wave propagation in saturated granular media. The type of sediment extracted from the G-S theory correlates well with the results obtained from sieve and particle size analysis of grab samples, collected from all the sites. The study clearly shows the application of ambient noise in extracting environmental information in shallow water, and further applying it to improve sonar performance modeling.     

Combined Geoacoustic Inversion of Propagation and Reverberation Data

Sonar performance predictions in shallow water are strongly dependent on good knowledge of the geoacoustic and scattering properties of the seabed. One technique to extract information about the bottom is to use a towed source and a towed horizontal array. This towed system has been shown to be applicable for characterizing the bottom properties locally by inversion of the acoustic signals received directly on the towed array at short ranges. The same towed system has also been applied to extract bottom properties from long-range reverberation data providing effective bottom properties over a large area. However, independent geoacoustic inversion of the short-range propagation and long-range reverberation data can introduce low sensitivity and uncertainty in the extracted bottom properties. An attempt to resolve this low sensitivity and ambiguity is made by a simultaneous geoacoustic inversion of short-range propagation and long-range reverberation data with the intention of constraining the possible solutions of the bottom properties.      

Measurement of Low-Frequency Sound Attenuation in Marine Sediment

Marine sediment compressional wave attenuation and its frequency dependence have been active topics in the ocean acoustics community. To support the predictions of the frequency dependence of the sediment attenuation, experimental studies are essential for providing the observations of the sediment attenuation as a function of frequency in different environments, such as sediment type, source–receiver range, water depth, etc. This paper proposes an experimental method for estimating marine sediment attenuation at low frequencies in shallow water. The experimental geometry is short range between a vertical line array and multiple source depths to cover bottom reflections over a wide span of grazing angles. Single bounce bottom-reflected (BR) and sub-bottom-reflected signals are used in the analysis to obtain the best approximation of the sediment intrinsic attenuation. The attenuation estimating method is demonstrated on chirp data (1.5–4.5 kHz) collected on the New Jersey Continental Shelf during the 2006 Shallow Water Experiment (SW06). The data indicate a linear frequency dependence of the compressional wave attenuation for clay rich sediments on the outer shelf, and the estimated value is 0.15 dB/ $lambda$ within the frequency band of 1.75–3.15 kHz. The observation of small sound-speed dispersion of $sim$15 m/s over the frequency band is consistent with a linear frequency dependence of attenuation.      

底床粉质土液化下波动水体含沙量垂向L型分布特征试验研究

根据现场大风浪条件下的实测资料,粉质土海岸水体中的含沙量沿垂向具有上部均匀、近底突增的分布特点,即呈L型分布特征。利用黄河三角洲粉质土作为试验底床开展波浪水槽试验研究,揭示了底床粉质土在波浪作用下产生液化情况的水体含沙量沿垂向存在L型分布特征。根据试验现象以及悬沙粒度变化,分析认为底部高含沙层的形成主要受粉质土液化后细颗粒析出的影响,上部水体中悬沙由湍流脉动维持。对粉质土海岸大风天气期间水体含沙量剧烈增加采用波致粉质土液化的观点进行了初步解释。     

A Sound Approach to Soft Sediment Resolution

The last few years has seen a surge in research activities directed towards investigating properties and dynamics of young marine, limnic and fluvial sediments. It is by now a well established fact that the sequence of sediments ranging from concentrated benthic suspension over fluid mud to un-consolidated material summarized as liquid sediments (LS), act as carriers for a wide range of pollutants discharged or migrated into waterways. Knowledge of the transport and fate of LS allows determining the transport and fate of adsorbed constituents (e.g., heavy metals, pesticides, PCBs, PAHs). To assess the environmental impact of LS, efforts have to be made to better understand the processes in relation to hydrodynamics and the chemical and physical properties of the layers. Since physical laws limit the resolution and detection power of conventional seismo-acoustic systems in respect of LS, alternative measurement, data analysis and processing approaches have to be found. Adapted acoustic procedures initially developed for shallow water marine environments to extreme shallow water regimes using matched field inversion techniques can reveal geoacoustic parameters including density, compressional wave speed and attenuation as a function of depth and time. The paper outlines the effects of sediment mobility upon the environment followed by a short overview of techniques commonly used to investigate sediments and other freshwater/marine events. The problems faced and limitations of existing systems are briefly outlined. Results obtained with recently developed and refined geoacoustic inversion methods are presented highlighting their potential for long-term study of physical properties and dynamics of LS.