A piecewise matched-field tracking algorithm

Matched-field tracking (MFT) algorithms have been successfully applied to both simulated and measured data to determine the most likely positions of a sound source that is localized ambiguously by a matched-field processing (MFP) system. They have been used to track sources moving linearly or on a circular path at constant speed and heading. The input to the trackers is a set of ambiguity surfaces, contiguous in time, generated by MFP. These algorithms assume that the track start and end times are known a priori; this restriction is removed in the piecewise MFT algorithm (PTA). The PTA was applied to narrow-band measured data collected during the PACIFIC SHELF 93 trial to successfully identify the significant source track segments     

An environmental assessment in the Strait of Sicily: measurementand analysis techniques for determining bottom and oceanographicproperties

In October 1997, the EnVerse 97 shallow-water acoustic experiments were jointly conducted by SACLANT Centre, TNO-FEL, and DERA off the coast of Sicily, Italy. The primary goal of the experiments was to determine the sea-bed properties through inversion of acoustic data. Using a towed source, the inversion method is tested at different source/receiver separations in an area with a range-dependent bottom. The sources transmitted over a broadband of frequencies (90-600 Hz) and the signals were measured on a vertical array of hydrophones. The acoustic data were continuously collected as the range between the source and receiving array varied from 0.5 to 6 km. An extensive seismic survey was conducted along the track providing supporting information about the layered structure of the bottom as well as layer compressional sound speeds. The oceanic conditions were assessed using current meters, satellite remote sensing, wave height measurements, and casts for determining conductivity and temperature as a function of water depth. Geoacoustic inversion results taken at different source/receiver ranges show sea-bed properties consistent with the range-dependent features observed in the seismic survey data. These results indicate that shallow-water bottom properties may be estimated over large areas using a towed source fixed receiver configuration     

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.      

Using matched-field processing to estimate shallow-water bottomproperties from shot data taken in the Mediterranean Sea

It is extremely difficult to determine shallow ocean bottom properties (such as sediment layer thicknesses, densities, and sound speeds). However, when acoustic propagation is affected by such environmental parameters, it becomes possible to use acoustic energy as a probe to estimate them. Matched-field processing (MFP) which relies on both field amplitude and phase can be used as a basis for the inversion of experimental data to estimate bottom properties. Recent inversion efforts applied to a data set collected in October 1993 in the Mediterranean Sea north of Elba produce major improvements in MFP power, i.e., in matching the measured field by means of a model using environmental parameters as inputs, even using the high-resolution minimum variance (MV) processor that is notoriously sensitive and usually results in very low values. The inversion method applied to this data set estimates water depth, sediment thickness, density, and a linear sound-speed profile for the first layer, density and a linear sound-speed profile for a second layer, constant sound speed for the underlying half space, array depth, and source range and depth. When the inversion technique allows for the array deformations in range as additional parameters (to be estimated within fractions of a wavelength, e.g., 0.1 m), the MFP MV peak value for the Med data at 100 Hz can increase from 0.48 (using improved estimates of environmental parameters and assuming a vertical line array) to 0.68 (using improved estimates of environmental parameters PLUS improved phone coordinates). The ideal maximum value would be 1.00 (which is achieved for the less sensitive Linear processor). However, many questions remain concerning the reliability of these inversion results and of inversion methods in general     

Shallow-water sound transmission measurements on the New Jerseycontinental shelf

Calibrated acoustic measurements were made under calm sea state conditions on the New Jersey shelf near the AMCOR 6010 borehole, a surveyed area with known geophysical properties. The experiment was conducted in 73 m water with supporting measurements of salinity, temperature, and sound speed. Acoustic measurements were obtained with a vertical array of 24 hydrophones spaced equally at 2.5 m intervals; one of which was near the bottom. A source towed at 1/2 the water depth transmitted one of two sets of four tones spaced between 50 and 600 Hz for each run to ranges of 4 and 26 km. The data were processed with both a Hankel transform and a high resolution Doppler technique to yield horizontal wave-number spectrum at several depths. Results were obtained along both constant and gradually varying depth profiles. Similar modal interference patterns were observed at the lower frequencies. The constant depth-profile radial results were compared to calculations performed with several shallow water acoustic models using geoacoustic profiles derived from geophysical parameters and shear wave inversion methods     

Simplified method of deep-tow seismic profiling

To improve resolution of seismic-reflection profiles in continental slope water depths of 900 to 1500 m, a single hydrophone was towed about 150 m off the bottom to receive reflected signals from a surface-towed sparker sound source. That deep-towed hydrophone data show that valleys which appear V-shaped in records from a surface-towed hydrophone are flat-bottomed, and that subbottom reflections from an erosional unconformity can be much better resolved. The data produced by this technique are very hepful when used in conjunction with records from conventional surface-towed seismic-profiling equipment.     

Experimental investigation of the angular dependence of low-frequency seabed reverberation

Linear frequency-modulated (LFM) signals with 600 Hz bandwidth, centered at 1.1 kHz were transmitted from a towed source in a shallow-water environment in the Mediterranean Sea and received at a distant vertical line array (VLA). Arrivals recorded on the VLA were beamformed to give incident intensity as a function of vertical angle. Simultaneous measurements of quasimonostatic reverberation were made on a horizontal line array (HLA), towed close to the source. In this paper, these data are analyzed to study the relation between the angle at which sound arrived at the patch of seabed surrounding the VLA and the intensity of quasimonostatic reverberation returned from that patch. The validity of three candidate relations (Lambert's Law, angle-independent scattering and an intermediate relation) is investigated and scattering strength parameters (Lambert /spl mu/ and equivalents) are also deduced for the patch of seabed surrounding the VLA. Only weak evidence is found to support one of the scattering relations (the intermediate) over the other two and the reasons for this are discussed. The physical processes that may underlie the intermediate relation are also discussed.     

近海底高分辨率地震探测系统设计与实现

受大深度水体的影响,传统的海面拖曳式多道地震技术在进行深水地层探测时,目标地层深度处的菲涅耳半径非常大,水平分辨率低,难以满足海域天然气水合物高精度探测需求。针对海面拖曳式地震探测技术存在的上述问题,设计了一套可以在2 000 m水深近海底作业的地震探测系统。应用耐压透声发射阵技术,克服了20 MPa外压环境和瞬时内压冲击对等离子体震源子波幅频特性的不利影响,研制的深拖等离子体震源的声源级达到214 dB,主频低于1 000 Hz;水下控制中心采用集成SoC片上系统设计,可以对震源进行定距激发控制,进行近海底多道地震数据的连续采集。系统在2019年深海试验拖曳最大深度达2 025 m,测试剖面数据显示最大地层穿透深度达380 m,纵向分辨率<2 m,横向分辨率<10 m,为深水海域沉积地层的深拖高分辨率地震探测提供了技术支撑。     

Inversion of Lloyd Mirror Field for Determining a Source's Track

This paper describes a simple approach for inferring the depth and track of a sound source at short ranges by inversion of acoustic field data at a set of sea bottom hydrophones. At short ranges, the acoustic field consists of a dominant Lloyd mirror (LM) signal from the direct and surface-reflected ray paths and a series of bottom-reflected paths that modulate the LM signal. A computationally efficient propagation model based on the method of images is developed to calculate replica fields for the inversion. The matched field inversion method for inferring the source depth and track is demonstrated using data from an experiment carried out in shallow water off the east coast of Canada. The estimated values were in very good agreement with independent measurements taken during the experiment.     

Ray Theory Application in Long Baseline System

The long baseline (LBL) system is widely used to locate and track autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) through acoustic communication.Three important issues are presented here in LBL system application with AUV.Those issues which regard the normal acoustic communication between LBL system and AUV are the depth of towed array,the length of beacon cable,and the effective area of the AUV.The first issue is the key of the LBL system,which ensures the normal communication between towed array and beacons.The second issue which impacts the normal communication from the AUV to beacons in available range should be considered after the first one has been settled.Then the last issue determines the safe work area of the AUV.The ordinary differential equations (ODE) algorithm of ray is deduced from Snell′s law.The ODE algorithm is applied to obtain sound rays from sound source to receiver.These problems are solved by the judgment that whether rays pinging from a sound source arrives at a receiver.The sea trial shows that these methods have much validity and practicality.     

An overview of matched field methods in ocean acoustics

A short historical overview of matched-field processing (MFP) is followed by background material in both ocean acoustics and array processing needed for MFP. Specific algorithms involving both quadratic and adaptive methods are then introduced. The results of mismatch studies and several algorithms designed to be relatively robust against mismatch are discussed. The use of simulated MFP for range, depth and bearing location is examined, using data from a towed array that has been tilted to produce an effective vertical aperture. Several experiments using MFP are reviewed. One successfully demonstrated MFP at megameter ranges; this has important consequences for experiments in global tomography. Some unique applications of MFP, including how it can exploit ocean inhomogeneities and make tomographic measurements of environmental parameters, are considered     

A time series analysis of sound propagation in a strongly multipathshallow water environment with an adiabatic normal mode approach

Measured time series were generated by small omnidirectional explosive sources in a shallow water area. A bottom-mounted hydrophone recorded sound signals that propagated over a sloping bottom. The time series in the 250-500 Hz band were analyzed with a broad-band adiabatic normal mode approach. The measured waveforms contain numerous bottom interacting multipaths that are complicated by the subbottom structure that contains high-velocity layers near the water-sediment interface. Several of the details of the geoacoustic structure and the depth of the water column at the receiver are inferred from comparisons of the measured data to simulated time series. The sensitivity of broad-band matched-field ambiguity surfaces in the range-depth plane for a single receiver to selected waveguide parameters is examined. A consistent analysis is made where the simulated time series are compared to the measured time series along with the single-receiver matched-field localization solutions for ranges out to 5 km. In this range interval, it was found that the peak cross-correlation between the measured and simulated time series varied between 0.84 and 0.69. The difference between the GPS range and the range obtained from the matched-field solution varied from 0 to 63 m. The geoacoustic structure obtained in the analysis consists of an 8-m low-velocity sediment layer over an 8-m high-velocity layer followed by a higher velocity, infinite half-space     

VLF source localization with a freely drifting acoustic sensorarray

The source localization and tracking capability of the freely drifting Swallow float volumetric array is demonstrated with the matched-field processing (MFP) technique using the 14-Hz CW data collected during a 1989 float experiment conducted in the northeast Pacific. Initial MFP of the experimental data revealed difficulties in estimating the source depth and range while the source azimuth estimate was quite successful. The main cause of the MFP performance degradation was incomplete knowledge of the environment. An environment adaptation technique using a global optimization algorithm was developed to alleviate the environmental mismatch problem, allowing the ocean-acoustic environment to be adapted to the acoustic data in a matched-field sense. Using the adapted environment, the 14-Hz source was successfully localized and tracked in azimuth and range within a region of interest using the MFP technique at a later time interval. Two types of environmental parameters were considered, i.e., sound speed and modal wave number. While both approaches yield similar results, the modal wave number adaptation implementation is more computationally efficient     

Acoustic wave propagation in horizontally variable media

An overview of the multipath expansion method of solving the Helmholtz wave equation to describe the underwater sound field for a fixed point source in a plane multilayered medium is presented. The approach is then extended to account for horizontal variations in bottom depth, bottom type, and sound speed in the stationary phase approximation. Comparisons of model results to a limited number of measured data sets and standard propagation codes are presented.     

Modal Inversion Analysis for Geoacoustic Properties of the New Jersey Continental Shelf in the SWAT Experiments

In this paper, inversion for bottom sediment properties at a site on the New Jersey continental shelf is studied as part of the Shallow Water Acoustic Technology (SWAT) project. A source towed at a constant water depth over a range of some tens of kilometers transmitted low-frequency continuous wave (cw) signals, which were measured on a bottom-moored vertical line array of receivers. For the along-shelf geometry, the zeroth-order asymptotic Hankel transform is then applied to the acoustic field at 50 Hz measured on the resulting synthetic aperture horizontal array created at each receiver depth. The resulting horizontal wave number spectra, which have peaks corresponding to the mode eigenvalues, are observed to have slightly different values at different receiver depths, and therefore, stochastic mode inversion is exploited to utilize all of the observed peak position information. The estimated sound-speed profile (SSP) for the upper 10 m of sediment is then compared with an inversion result obtained using midfrequency (2–16 kHz) chirp sonar pulses reflected at normal incidence from the sediment. Although obtained using totally different inversion techniques, both estimated profiles are shown to be in good agreement in the top 10 m of sediment. The acoustic field simulated using the inverted SSP also agrees well with the measured acoustic field at each receiver depth. Furthermore, simulated sound fields which use this profile as input data are shown to be effective in predicting the measurements obtained at a different frequency (125 Hz) and for a different (cross-shelf) geometry.      

Reflection profiling in the deep ocean using a near bottom hydrophone

A 20 km long high resolution seismic reflection profile was carried out approximately 300 km southwest of Bermuda. The data were collected using a small airgun sound source and a single hydrophone receiver towed 100 m above the seafloor at a depth of 5400 m. Comparisons with nearby conventional seismic reflection profiles show the considerable improvement of resolving power provided by this method, particularly of the basement morphology beneath the 700 m thick sediment column. The data were recorded digitally and selected data examples show the enhancement provided by filtering, stacking, source deconvolution and corrections for hydrophone motion. The precise picture of basement topography that results from this data is compared with deep tow bathymetry profiles of the present day mid-Atlantic Ridge flanks, and is seen to be remarkably similar.     

Simulation studies of the response of deeply towed vehicle to various towing ship maneuvers

The behavior of a long cable towed at slow speeds through the ocean depends in a complex fashion on the path followed by the towing ship relative to the water. A cable simulation program was used to characterize the response of the cable by using idealized towing ship maneuvers as input to the program. The response of the cable was noted and it was found that the behavior of the cable was strongly dependent on the fundamental period of the towing vessel maneuvers. Sinusoidal deviations of the towing ship from a straight towing track resulted in delayed and reduced excursions of the towed vehicle from the tract; the estimated response ratio varied from 0·002 to 0·800, depending both on the period of the deviations (periods ranged from 5·5 to 4·0 hr) and on the towing depth (2 or 6 km). The ship's speed was 3 km/hr. The time lag between ship motion and vehicle response was approximately 0·5 hr for the shallow case and 1·3 hr for the deep case. Simulations runs of a low dragk (faired) cable showed that the behavior of the vehicle when towed at a depth of 6 km was similar to that obtained with a conventional cable at 2 km depth. The response of the towed vehicle to a right-angle turn of the towing ship was investigated and a generalized model of the response developed. The effects of a controllable side force on the towed vehicle were also simulated and it was noted that a deviation (2-hr period) of the towed vehicle from a straight-line track could be reduced from 40 to 2 m by impressing a side force on the vehicle with an average magnitude of 150 newtons (30 lb).     

Vertical distribution of giant jellyfish, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nemopilema nomurai</Emphasis> using acoustics and optics

Nemopilema nomurai jellyfish, which are believed to complete their development in the East China Sea, have started migrating into the Yellow Sea in recent years. We obtained biomass estimates of this species in the Yellow Sea using bottom trawl fishing gear and sighting surveys over a 5-year period. These methods are effective for obtaining N. nomurai jellyfish density estimates and information about the community distribution near the bottom or surface of the sea. To verify the vertical distributions of giant jellyfish between, we used hydroacoustic equipment, including an optical stereo camera system attached to a towed sledge and an echo counting method with scientific echosounder system. Acoustic and optical data were collected while the vessel moved at 3 knots, from which the distribution and density of N. nomurai jellyfish were analyzed. Subsequently, the camera system was towed from a 7 m mean depth to sea level, with the detection range of the acoustic system extending from an 8 m depth to the bottom surface. The optical and acoustic methods indicated the presence of vertical distribution of 0.11³ (inds/m³) and 0.064 (inds/m3), respectively. However, the vertical distribution indicated that around 93% of individuals occurred at a depth range of 10–40 m; thus, a 2.4-fold greater density was estimated by acoustic echo counting compared to the optical method.     

Modal time-series structure in a shallow-water environment [HudsonCanyon region]

The broad-band acoustic characterization of the Hudson Canyon region off the New Jersey Continental Shelf is studied with an analysis of pressure time series generated by small explosive sources and recorded on a vertical line array (VLA). The average water depth is about 72 m and the average sound-speed profile (SSP) is downward-refracting over the midportions of the water column. The seabed is characterized by sediment layers possessing sand-like characteristics. The sound-speed structure of the water column and the seabed structure create distinguishing modal features in the impulse response in the 250-500-Hz hand. The details of the depth and range dependence of the time series on the VLA are sensitive to small perturbations of the structure of the upper layer of the SSP, the water depth, and the seabed structure. This sensitivity of the acoustic field is investigated using a broad-band range-dependent normal mode model called NAUTILUS. The representation of the spatial and temporal structure of the time series in terms of a modal structure reveals several unique effects of the SSP and the geoacoustic structure of the bottom on the group velocity of the modes over a large bandwidth. Individual modes can be identified in the measured data using direct data-simulation comparisons. Cross-correlation values between data and simulations in a 155-ms time window generally vary from 0.7 to 0.9 for sensors below the thermocline but are much smaller for sensors above the thermocline     

First measurements from a deep-tow transient electromagnetic sounding system

An electromagnetic sounding system has been developed to map the shallow electrical conductivity structure of the deep sea floor. The instrument consists of a magnetic source and several colinear magnetic receivers forming an array which is towed along the seafloor. The source generates a time varying magnetic field; the shape of the resulting magnetic field waveform at the receivers depends on the electrical conductivity below the seafloor between the receivers and the source. The instrument can be towed systematically over a study area under acoustic transponder or GPS navigation to construct a map of the electrical conductivity. Towing speeds of greater than 1 m s^–1 (2 knots) can be achieved without adversely effecting data quality. The instrument is sufficiently robust to survive continual contact with thinly sedimented, abrasive basalt. We present the first results from a deployment in August, 1990 near the Cleft Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge along an 8 km track to the west of the spreading center. Unforeseen problems with the instrument restricted the utility of the measurements for constructing detailed vertical conductivity profiles, but the measurements were adequate to determine an average conductivity in the upper 25 m, at more than 70 stations. The conductivity was found to vary from 0.1 to 0.4 S/m along the track.