Benchmarking geoacoustic inversion methods for range-dependent waveguides

Inversion methods have been developed over the past decade to extract information about unknown ocean-bottom environments from acoustic field data. This paper summarizes results from the Office of Naval Research/Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Geoacoustic Inversion Techniques Workshop, which was designed to benchmark present-day inversion methods. The format of the workshop was a blind test to estimate unknown geoacoustic profiles by inversion of synthetic acoustic field data. The fields were calculated using a high-angle parabolic approximation and verified using coupled normal modes for three range-dependent shallow-water test cases: a monotonic slope; a shelf break; and a fault intrusion in the sediment. Geoacoustic profiles were generated to simulate sand, silt, and mud sediments in these environments. Several different approaches for inverting the acoustic field data were presented at the workshop: model-based matched-field methods; perturbation methods; methods using transmission loss data; and methods using horizontal array information. An effective inversion must provide both an estimate of the bottom parameters and a measure of the uncertainty of the estimated values. New methods were presented at the workshop to formalize the measure of uncertainty in the inversion. Comparisons between the different inversions are discussed in terms of a metric-based transmission loss calculated using the inverted profiles. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of present-day inversion techniques and indicate the limits of their capabilities for range-dependent waveguides.     

Geoacoustic Inversions of Horizontal and Vertical Line Array Acoustic Data From a Surface Ship Source of Opportunity

The application of an inversion methodology produces the first demonstration of a simultaneous solution for geoacoustic and source track parameters from acoustic data collected in a shallow-water, sandy sediment environment. Inversion solutions from data collected in the 2006 Shallow Water Experiment (SW06) are extracted from noise measurements of a surface ship source on an L-array. The methodology includes a screening algorithm to determine a set of frequencies for the inversion data. In addition, the methodology assesses the accuracy of the inversion solution and incorporates an estimation of parameter value uncertainties. The solution from the inversion of the horizontal component of the L-array data from the surface ship source before its closest point of approach (CPA) is used to construct modeled propagation loss for comparison with observed received level (RL) structure as the source departs from CPA. Inversion of the data from a single element in the vertical component of the L-array produces a solution that agrees with the solution obtained from the inversion of horizontal subaperture data. Also, modeled transmission loss (TL) structure obtained from the single-element inversion solution reproduces the depth dependence of the RL structure observed at other elements of the vertical component of the L-array.      

Inversion for Range-Dependent Sediment Compressional-Wave-Speed Profiles From Modal Dispersion Data

A perturbative inversion method for estimating sediment compressional-wave-speed profiles from modal travel-time data is extended to include range-dependent environments. The procedure entails dividing a region into range-independent sections and obtaining estimates of the sediment properties for each region. Inversion results obtained using synthetic data show that range-dependent properties can be obtained if an experiment is designed to include multiple source/receiver combinations. This approach is applied to field data collected during the 2006 Shallow Water Experiment (SW06). The sediment compressional-wave-speed profiles resulting from analysis of the field data are evaluated by comparing acoustic fields predicted based on the inversion to acoustic fields measured during a different experiment conducted in the same region. The model is also compared to seismic reflection survey data collected during SW06. Resolution and variance estimated for the inversion results are also presented.      

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.     

Geoacoustic inversion of range-dependent data with added Gaussian noise

A rotated coordinates inversion algorithm is used on subsets of the Inversion Techniques 2001 Geoacoustic Workshop data, to which white Gaussian noise is added. The resulting data sets are equivalent to noisy broad-band signals received on a horizontal line array (HLA) during a single integration time interval. The inversions are performed using a technique called systematic decoupling using rotated coordinates (SDRC), which expands the original idea of rotated coordinates by using multiple sets of rotated coordinates, each corresponding to a different set of bounds, to systematically decouple the unknowns in a series of efficient simulated annealing inversions. The cost function minimized in the inversion is based on the coherent broad-band correlation between data and model cross spectra, which increases the coherence gain of the signal relative to incoherent noise. Using the coherent broad-band cost function with sparse HLA-like data sets, the SDRC inversion method yields good estimates for the sensitive environmental parameters for signal-to-noise ratios as low as -15 dB.     

胶州湾流速场的声层析反演研究

采用结合匹配法和经验正交函数法的射线声层析反演方法,针对流场水平分布不均匀特点,使用距离等效分段方法对反演算法进行改进,利用三个断面声层析数据,对胶州湾口潮流场的垂直和水平分布进行反演。与传统方法比较,大大降低与实测流速垂直分布间的偏差,平均偏差小于0.02 m/s,流场垂直分布间的相关系数提高到0.85以上。分析了声传播断面上不同的流场结构,以及涨潮期间在胶州湾团岛附近出现的涡流现象,并计算得到湾口海水流量变化。结果表明,改进的射线声层析反演方法可有效地用于水平分布不均匀流场监测,仅采用少量声学观测站位,即可获得大范围的复杂流场三维信息,有利于近海海洋资源开发、海洋环境保护和船舶航行安全。     

Rapid geoacoustic characterization: applied to range-dependent environments

The problem of rapid environmental assessment in a range-dependent environment is addressed. For rapid assessment, the exact geoacoustic parameters are not required, nor is it a requirement that the exact structure of the acoustic field (location of peaks and s) be matched by an acoustic prediction model. The parameters that are relevant are the overall transmission loss (incoherent TL), the time spread (/spl tau/), and the slopes of the range/frequency interference patterns (/spl beta/, the waveguide invariant). The rapid geoacoustic characterization algorithm uses a homogeneous single-sediment layer overlying a hard acoustic basement model to optimally match the predicted acoustic observables with those estimated from data. The approach is presented here and is applied to the range-dependent benchmark cases TC1 and TC2 from the Inversion Techniques Workshop held in Gulfport, MS, in May 2001. The technique successfully reproduces the acoustic observables and estimates the sediment sound-speed, density, and attenuation profiles, as well as the sediment thickness.     

Estimating geoacoustic parameters using matched-field inversion methods

In this paper, we use matched-field inversion methods to estimate the geoacoustic parameters for three synthetic test cases from the Geoacoustic Inversion Techniques Workshop held in May 2001 in Gulfport, MS. The objective of this work is to use a sparse acoustic data set to obtain estimates of the parameters as well as an indication of their uncertainties. The unknown parameters include the geoacoustic properties of the sea bed (i.e., number of layers, layer thickness, density, compressional speed, and attenuation) and the bathymetry for simplified range-dependent acoustic environments. The acoustic data used to solve the problems are restricted to five frequencies for a single vertical line array of receivers located at one range from the source. Matched-field inversion using simplex simulated annealing optimization is initially used to find a maximum-likelihood (ML) estimate. However, the ML estimate provides no information on the uncertainties or covariance associated with the model parameters. To estimate uncertainties, a Bayesian formulation of matched-field inversion is used to generate posterior probability density distributions for the parameters. The mean, covariance, and marginal distributions are determined using a Gibbs importance sampler based on the cascaded Metropolis algorithm. In most cases, excellent results were obtained for relatively sensitive parameters such as wave speed, layer thickness, and water depth. The variance of the estimates increase for relatively insensitive parameters such as density and wave attenuation, especially when noise is added to the data.     

Rapid geoacoustic characterization using a surface ship of opportunity

The problem of rapid classification of the sea-floor sediment is addressed using horizontal line array (HLA) acoustic data from a passing surface ship. The data are beamformed to improve signal-to-noise ratio. The rapid geoacoustic characterization (RGC) algorithm involves extracting acoustic observables from the data (normalized striation slope, time spread, and transmission-loss slope). A simple single homogenous sediment layer over an acoustic half-space model is used to compute forward estimates of the acoustic observables. An exhaustive search over the two-parameter model is performed. The two parameters searched over are the sediment compressional speed (Cp), which is a polynomial function of the mean grain size (/spl phi/), and sediment thickness (H). This approach provides a real-time technique for classifying the sediment in a way that successfully reproduces the basic physics of propagation.     

Tests of models for high-frequency seafloor backscatter

The interaction of high-frequency sound with the seafloor is inherently a stochastic process. Inversion techniques must, therefore employ good stochastic models for bottom acoustic scattering. An assortment of physical models for bottom backscattering strength is tested by comparison with scattering strength data obtained at 40 kHz at three shallow water sites spanning a range of sediment types from fine silt to coarse sand. These acoustic data are accompanied by sediment physical property data obtained by core sample analysis and in situ probes. In addition, stereo photography was used to measure the power spectrum of bottom relief on centimeter scales. These physical data provided the inputs needed to test the backscatter models, which treat scattering from both the rough sediment-water interface and the sediment volume. For the three sites considered here, the perturbation model for scattering from a slightly rough fluid seafloor performs well. Volume scattering is predicted to be weak except at a site having a layer of methane bubbles     

Performance comparison between vertical and horizontal arrays for geoacoustic inversion

Most of the research on model-based geoacoustic inversion techniques has concentrated on data collected using moored vertical receiver arrays. However, there are many advantages to considering geoacoustic inversion using a towed horizontal array. Towed arrays are easily deployed from a moving platform; this mobility makes them well suited for surveying large areas for sea-bed properties. Further, if a model-based geoacoustic inversion scheme uses both a towed source and array, the separation between the two can be kept short, which reduces the requirement for range-dependent modeling. Range-independent modeling is used for inverting all the horizontal array data considered in this paper. Using the Inversion Techniques Workshop Benchmark Test Cases, the performance of a horizontal (simulated towed) and vertical arrays are compared and found to be very similar. However, it will be shown that, for Benchmark Test Case 3, where the bathymetry is flat and a hidden bottom intrusion exists, a towed horizontal array is ideal for determining the range-dependent sea-bed properties. The practical advantages of using a towed array are clear and the purpose of this paper is to show that the performance is similar (and in some cases better) than using moored vertical arrays.     

Benchmarking geoacoustic inversion methods using range-dependent field data

Over the past decade, inversion methods have been developed and applied to acoustic field data to provide information about unknown ocean-bottom environments. An effective inversion must provide both an estimate of the bottom parameters and a measure of the uncertainty of the estimated values. This paper summarizes results from the Office of Naval Research (ONR)/Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Geoacoustic Inversion Techniques Workshop, test cases 4 and 5. The workshop was held to benchmark present-day inversion methods for estimating geoacoustic profiles in shallow water. The format of the workshop was a blind test to estimate unknown geoacoustic profiles by inversion of measured acoustic transmission loss data in octave bands and reverberation envelopes. The data sets for test cases 4 and 5 were taken at two locations in shallow water, one in the East China Sea and the other along the southwest coast of Florida. The limitations of the data and the limits to the knowledge of the sites are discussed. In both cases, impulsive sources were used in conjunction with air-deployed sonobuoys. Since the measured data was incoherent, only methods consistent with total energy matching were applicable. Comparisons between the different inversion techniques presented at the workshop are discussed. For test cases 4 and 5, a precise metric was unavailable for comparison.     

An inverse method for reconstructing the density and sound speed profiles of a layered ocean bottom

A standard inverse problem in underwater acoustics is the reconstruction of the ocean subbottom structure (e.g., the density and sound speed profiles) from an aperture- and bandlimited knowledge of the reflection coefficient. In this paper we describe an inverse solution method due to Candel et al. [12] which is based on the scattering of acoustic plane waves by a one-dimensional inhomogeneous medium. As a consequence of applying the forward scattering approximation to a local wave representation of the acoustic field, they obtain an expression for the reflection coefficient in the form of a nonlinear Fourier transform of the logarithmic derivative of the local admittance. Inversion of this integral transform enables the recovery of the admittance profile via the numerical integration of two first-order differential equations which require as reflection data a single impulse response of the medium. Separate recovery of both the density and sound speed profiles requires two impulse responses for two different grazing angles. In this case, four differential equations need to be integrated instead of two. To illustrate the capability of the method, we present numerical reconstructions which are based on synthetic reflection data for a geoacoustic model that represents the acoustic properties of the surficial sediments for a site in the Hatteras Abyssal Plain.     

Deep-water acoustic coherence at long ranges: theoreticalprediction and effects on large-array signal processing

This paper presents results of combined consideration of sound coherence and array signal processing in long-range deep-water environments. Theoretical evaluation of the acoustic signal mutual coherence function (MCF) of space for a given sound-speed profile and particular scattering mechanism is provided. The predictions of the MCF are employed as input data to investigate the coherence-induced effects on the horizontal and vertical array gains associated with linear and quadratic beamformers with emphasis on the optimal ones. A method of the radiation transport equation is developed to calculate the MCF of the multimode signal under the assumption that internal waves or surface wind waves are the main source of long-range acoustic fluctuations in a deep-water channel. Basic formulations of the array weight vectors and small signal deflection are then exploited to examine optimal linear and quadratic processors in comparison with plane-wave beamformers. For vertical arrays, particular attention is paid also to evaluation of the ambient modal noise factor. The numerical simulations are carried out for range-independent environments from the Northwest Pacific for a sound frequency of 250 Hz and distances up to 1000 km. It was shown distinctly that both signal coherence degradation and modal noise affect large-array gain, and these effects are substantially dependent on the processing technique used. Rough surface sound scattering was determined to cause the most significant effects     

Using the adaptive simulated annealing algorithm to estimate ocean-bottom geoacoustic properties from measured and synthetic transmission loss data

This paper presents the results obtained using the adaptive simulated annealing (ASA) algorithm to invert the test cases from the Geoacoustic Inversion Techniques Workshop held in May 2001. The ASA algorithm was chosen for use in our inversion software for its speed and robustness when searching the geoacoustic parameter solution space to minimize the difference between the observed and the modeled transmission loss (TL). Earlier work has shown that the ASA algorithm is approximately 15 times faster than a modified Boltzmann annealing algorithm, used in prior versions of our TL inversion software, with comparable fits to the measured data. Results are shown for the synthetic test cases, 0 through 3, and for the measured data cases, 4 and 5. The inversion results from the synthetic test cases showed that subtle differences between range-dependent acoustic model version 1.5, used to generate the test cases, and parabolic equation (PE) 5.0, used as the propagation loss model for the inversion, were significant enough to result in the inversion algorithm finding a geoacoustic environment that produced a better match to the synthetic data than the true environment. The measured data cases resulted in better fits using ASTRAL automated signal excess prediction system TL 5.0 than using the more sophisticated PE 5.0 as a result of the inherent range averaging present in the ASTRAL 5.0 predictions.     

Simulating Realistic-Looking Sediment Ripple Fields

Sandy sediment ripples impact sonar performance in coastal waters through Bragg scattering. Observations from data suggest that sandy ripple elevation relative to the mean seafloor as a function of the horizontal coordinates is not Gaussian distributed; specifically, peak amplitude fading over space associated with a random Gaussian process is largely absent. Such a non-Gaussian nature has implications for modeling acoustic scattering from, and penetration into, sediments. An algorithm is developed to generate ripple fields with a given power spectrum; these fields have non-Gaussian statistics and are visually consistent with data. Higher order statistics of these ripple fields and their implications to sonar detection are discussed.      

Beam forming on bottom-interacting tow-ship noise

Ship noise received on a horizontal array towed behind the ship is shown to be useful as a potentially diagnostic tool for estimating local acoustic bottom properties. In numerical simulations, tow-ship noise which bounces off the bottom is processed on a beamformer that shows the arrival angles; the beamformer output is readily interpreted by relating it to the Green's function of the acoustic wave equation. Simple signal processing is shown to be sufficient to extract the propagation angles of the "trapped" (i.e., propagating) modes of the acoustic waveguide. By relating the trapped modes to a basic geophysical model of the bottom, one can predict acoustic-propagation conditions for a particular bottom-interacting ocean acoustic environment.     

Mapping climatic temperature changes in the ocean with acoustictomography: navigational requirements

In eddy-resolving hydrodynamic models, first-mode baroclinic Rossby waves linked to El Nino/Southern Oscillation are the dominant features which change basin-wide temperatures below the seasonal thermocline in the northeast Pacific at periods less than a decade. Simulations are carried out in which Rossby waves are mapped using acoustic tomography. Based on the model which propagated these waves, a Kalman filter is used to map temperature signals for a year. The modeled data are taken from a dense network of acoustic tomography sections. At 300-m depth, where the temperature perturbations associated with Rossby waves are about ±1°C, 80% to 90% of the model variance is accounted for with tomographic estimates. The corresponding standard deviations of the estimates are less than 0.1°C at 400-km resolution. About 80% of the model variance is accounted for with tomography when the navigational errors of the sources and receivers are as poor as one kilometer. Consequently, it may be unnecessary to accurately navigate actual tomographic instruments to map climate change. Modeling results are insensitive to: 1) a reduction in data due to a significant number of instruments which fail; 2) whether the instruments are mobile or fixed; 3) the detailed trajectories of mobile receivers; 4) the shape of the a priori spectrum of ocean fluctuations; 5) the corrections to the acoustic travel-time biases; and 6) the errors in the sound-speed algorithm. In basin-scale arrays, the modeled variance of acoustic travel time depends on the horizontal wavenumber of temperature as k^-5.5. Because sound has little sensitivity to small wavelengths, modeled Rossby waves can be mapped in a day from a few sources and of order ten receivers. The results only depend on the model having large scales in space and time     

自主回收UUV水声定位与遥测遥控导引技术研究

针对 UUV 任务结束或能源不足时自主回收的需求,深入研究了 UUV 中远程水声定位与遥测遥控导引技术,完成了水声定位与遥测遥控导引系统方案设计,重点研究了 MFSK、OFDM、扩频等水声遥测遥控调制方式。 通过分析和对比,设计了一种正交混合扩频调制方式,并采用相干二维搜索技术,提高扩频技术多普勒补偿能力。 开展了湖上静态与动态跑船试验,试验数据结果表明:水声水平定位精度优于 0. 5%,水声遥测遥控系统解算误码率达到了 10^-3 数量级,可有效引导 UUV 回收作业。