Deep-ocean vertical noise directionality

The structure of beam noise measured at the output of a vertical array in a range dependent ocean basin was investigated using the modified wide-angle parabolic equation (PE). Noise sources were distributed throughout the basin, and the field due to each noise source at an array located in the midbasin was calculated. The response of the array to the superposition of the noise sources was found by beamforming. An efficient and direct approach that superimposes the noise sources on the PE field as the field is marched toward the array was developed. Downslope calculations of the midbasin vertical directionality were made between 50 and 400 Hz with this technique. Use of a geoacoustic model shows that the bottom behaves as a low-pass filter     

Measured vertical noise directionality at five sites in the Western North Atlantic

Solutions were computed for the vertical ambient sea noise field directionality at five sites in the Western North Atlantic Ocean using data from a 26-hydrophone element array with a 358.4-foot aperture at a center depth of 1,000 feet. Results show that the low-frequency noise below 100 Hz is concentrated near the horizontal (50 to 93 percent of the noise power between /spl plusmn/15/spl deg/ of horizontal) and is apparently dependent on bottom loss and shipping density. The results in the band 200 to 380 Hz are a combination of sea state and shipping noise dependent. A noise field solution technique was developed involving noise cross spectral matrix inversions. This technique overcomes some of the drawbacks of previous techniques such as least mean square estimation and successive approximations.     

Reverberation rejection via modeforming with a vertical line array

The concept of modeforming with a vertical line array for active target detection in a reverberation-limited shallow-water environment is explored. The concept is based on the hypothesis that, in certain environments, the reverberation field is due to subbottom scattering and the reverberant energy is carried by the higher order modes; on the other hand, the targets in the water column are contained in the lower order modes. Under these conditions, isolation of a low-order mode, or a selected set of modes, with a vertical array could substantially increase the target-to-reverberation ratio. The optimum mode depends greatly on the environmental conditions and the depth of the target. Modeforming is achieved by deriving a spatial filter function that depends on the receiving array and the local environment     

Seismic reflection profiling with a deep-towed vertical hydrophone array

A seismic reflection profiling system consisting of a 264 m long, deep-towed, 15-element, end-fire, vertical array and a 40 cubic inch airgun was successfully used to profile a sediment pond in the trough of the inactive segment of the Kane Fracture Zone close to it's intersection with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 24° N. The increased signal to noise ratio achieved with the array demonstrates that it is a useful tool for detailed seismic profiling in areas of rough topography in the deep ocean.Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Contribution No. 5443.     

Hydrodynamic coefficients for a vertical tube in an array

In a wave tank test with vertical tube array arranged transverse to the wave direction, forces on two 1 ft instrumented sections as well as on the tubes are measured. The effect of the spacing of the tubes upon the forces on the tubes are investigated. The mass and drag coefficients are determined from the forces on the instrumented sections of the tubes. They are presented as functions of the Keulegan-Carpenter number (or the period parameter) and the tube spacing. The total forces on the tubes are computed based on the mean values of the hydrodynamic coefficients. The correlation between these calculated values and the measured forces is found to be good.     

Solitary wave interactions with an array of two vertical cylinders

This paper addresses a numerical investigation of nonlinear waves interactions with an array of two surface-piercing vertical cylinders and the corresponding nonlinear hydrodynamic loads on each individual cylinder. The primary interest of this study is concentrated on the problem of three-dimensional scattering of solitary waves by cylinder arrays and the nonlinear interactions between scattered waves. The theoretical model adopted for simulation is the generalized Boussinesq two-equation model. The boundary-fitted coordinate transformation and multiple-grid technique are utilized here to simplify the computation domain and to facilitate the applications of the boundary conditions on the cylinder surfaces. The velocity potential, free-surface elevation and subsequent evolution of the scattered wave field are numerically evaluated. The hydrodynamic forces on each cylinder during wave impact are also determined. A study of the sheltering effect by the neighboring structures on wave loads is conducted. It is found that the presence of the neighboring cylinder has shown significant influence on the wave loads and the scattering of the primary incident waves. For two transversely arranged cylinders, the transverse force coefficient increases as the separation distance decreases.     

Vertical directionality of ambient noise at 32°N as a functionof longitude and wind speed

Measurements of the ambient-noise field between 50 and 300 Hz with vertical arrays at 32°N (124°W, 136°W, and 150°W) have been made. Substantial differences in the vertical distribution of noise have been measured (especially at the higher frequencies), which can be interpreted in the context of attenuation by seawater sound absorption of coastal shipping noise. Under low wind-speed conditions, the vertical distribution of ambient noise is clearly concentrated within approximately ±15° of the horizontal. High wind speed has the effect of filling in the higher vertical angles, while leaving the level within the low-angular region unchanged     

Range and depth estimation using a vertical array in a correlatedmultipath environment

The effects of correlation between time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) estimates on the localization of an underwater source in a direct-surface reflected propagation environment is investigated for a two-element vertical array with omnidirectional sensors. Expressions for the covariance matrix of the noisy TDOAs are derived. The results show that the estimated TDOAs are correlated and that the degree of correlation depends on the relative location of the source. Expressions for variances of range and depth estimators are developed using a least-squares technique. The results show that the expressions for variances of the range and depth estimators can be in error by as much as a factor 3.3 if the correlation among the TDOAs is ignored. The expressions for the covariances of the TDOAs and the expressions for the variances of the range and depth, which incorporate the correlation in the TDOAs, are corroborated with Monte Carlo simulations     

Interaction of cnoidal waves with an array of vertical concentric porous cylinders

An array of large concentric porous cylinder arrays is mounted in shallow water exposed to cnoidal waves. The interactions between waves and cylinders are studied theoretically using an eigenfunction expansion approach. Semi-analytical solutions of hydrodynamic loads and wave run-up on each cylinder are obtained using first approximation to cnoidal waves. The square array configuration of four-legged identical concentric porous cylinder is investigated in present study. Numerical results reveal the variation of dimensionless wave force and wave run-up on individual cylinder with angle of incidence, porosity parameter, spacing between outer and inner cylinders, spacing between concentric porous cylinders and wave parameter. Different mechanism of wave force is found under different range of scattering parameter.     

Simultaneous reception of long-range low-frequency backscattered sound by a vertical and a horizontal array

Simultaneous measurements of low-frequency sound generated by an explosive source and backscattered from the seafloor in the eastern Mediterranean were made with two receiver configurations: a towed horizontal array and a vertical array. Images of the scattering features on the beam-time data of the horizontal array were useful in the interpretation of the scattering process and in estimating areas of scatterers received by the vertical array, and permitted scattering strengths to be estimated for both configurations. Images of the vertical array data provided information about the vertical arrival angles at the array from specific scatterers. At long range, the sound from the scattering features was received at grazing angles less than13deg. The scattering strengths for three features varied from - 47 to - 25 dB. The mean frequency dependence over the band 125 to 700 Hz varied from 0 to 2.5 dB/octave with greater variations occurring within smaller bands.     

Using ocean ambient noise for array self-localization and self-synchronization

Estimates of the travel times between the elements of a bottom hydrophone array can be extracted from the time-averaged ambient noise cross-correlation function (NCF). This is confirmed using 11-min-long data blocks of ambient noise recordings that were collected in May 1995 near the southern California coast at an average depth of 21 m in the 150-700 Hz frequency range. Coherent horizontal wavefronts emerging from the time derivative of the NCF are obtained across the array's aperture and are related to the direct arrival time of the time-domain Green's function (TDGF). These coherent wavefronts are used for array element self-localization (AESL) and array element self-synchronization (AESS). The estimated array element locations are used to beamform on a towed source.     

A simple deep-towed vertical array for high-resolution reflection seismic profiling

A simple, low cost, deep-towed system for high-resolution reflection seismic profiling is described. It consists of a vertical array with two hydrophones having a separation of 2.2 m and rigidly mounted onto streamlined tow bodies. Improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio is attained by simple stacking of the hydrophone outputs after signal conditioning and travel time corrections. The suppression of side echoes and surface reflections is achieved by an analog procedure which in effect improves the directional characteristics of the array. A circuit for automatic gain control is included to enhance weak signals as well as to suppress ringing.Results in Kiel Bay and over the crest of the Jan Mayen Ridge (northern Atlantic) suggest that this simple vertical array may supplement air gun systems better than conventional, surface pinger-type equipment.Institute of Geophysics     

Experimental matched-field localization results using a short vertical array and mid-frequency signals in shallow water

Traditionally, matched-field processing (MFP) has been used to localize low-frequency sources (e.g., <300 Hz) from their acoustic signals received on long vertical arrays. However, some sources emit acoustic signals of much higher frequency. Applying MFP to signals in the mid-frequency range (e.g., 1-4 kHz) is a very challenging problem because MFP's sensitivity to environmental parameter mismatch becomes more severe with increasing frequency. Robust MFP techniques are required to process signals in the mid-frequency range. As a practical issue, short vertical arrays are more convenient to work with than are long vertical arrays; they are easier to deploy and are less prone to large amounts of deformation. However, short vertical arrays undersample the water column, which can result in severely degraded MFP performance. In this paper, we present experimental data results for this nonconventional paradigm. Using the environmentally robust broad-band L/sub /spl infin//-norm estimator, MFP results are given using shallow-water experimental data. This data consisted of broad-band signals in the 3-4-kHz band collected on an eight-element 2.13-m vertical array. These results serve to demonstrate that good localization performance can be attained for this difficult problem. Guidelines on the appropriate use of ray and normal-mode propagation models are also presented.     

海洋环境噪声垂直分布测试和分析

采用船舷法对某海域海洋环境噪声垂直分布进行了测量.数据处理与分析结果表明,在6种接收深度下,当地的海面风生破碎波浪噪声对环境噪声有显著贡献.给出了所测海域环境噪声在0.1～20.0kHz频段的宽带声级和接收深度以及多种频率谱级与风速的对数之间的关系.1.0～4.0kHz频段的谱级与风速的对数呈良好的线性关系,且基本上不受接收深度的影响.     

Second-order resonance among an array of two rows of vertical circular cylinders

Experimental and theoretical works are conducted on the first-order and second-order wave interactions among an array of two rows of vertical circular cylinders.We show that both the first-order and the second-order resonance of dynamic free-surface displacement could in some cases be quite relevant among an array of two rows of vertical cylinders not only in theory but also in real phenomena. In some cases, on the other hand, we show that large free-surface displacement predicted theoretically is quite attenuated in reality probably due to viscous dissipation.     

High-precision array element localization for vertical line arraysin the Arctic Ocean

Array element localization (AEL) surveys are often required to accurately localize acoustic instruments (transponders or sensors) in the ocean. These are typically based on transmitting or recording acoustic signals from or at a set of well-known positions. A significant limiting factor in many AEL surveys is the uncertainty inherent in these “known” positions. In this paper, an inversion algorithm is developed which properly treats both transponder and sensor positions as unknowns, subject to available a priori information in the form of position estimates and uncertainties. The algorithm essentially consists of an iterative linearized inversion of the raytracing equations employing the method of regularization. The approach is applied to independently localize transponders and vertical line array (VLA) sensors that form part of a three-dimensional sensor array in the Arctic Ocean. Confidence limits estimated via Monte Carlo simulation indicate that transponders and sensors are localized to less than 1 m in three dimensions. The VLA sensor motion, monitored over a seven-week period, appears to be predominately driven by tidal currents and is consistent with historical current measurements for the region     

干涉谱法测量水下竖直运动目标轨迹

以被动测量竖直运动目标轨迹为目的,通过分析多途信号声压场模型,讨论了经过相干多途信道的目标辐射噪声在接收点产生相干干涉的现象。在目标水平距离已知的情形下,给出了干涉频率周期与目标深度的关系,提出了利用多途信道的相干干涉信息来解算目标深度轨迹的方法。时频分析可以得到干涉条纹、条纹粗细变化的规律与目标深度变化有关。通过对实测数据的分析,说明本方法的有效性。     

A nearest neighbor algorithm for fast matched-field processing witha vertical line array

Selection of replica fields that are most like the data, i.e., the nearest neighbors (NNs) to the data, offers a way of reducing the computational search space in matched-field processing, thereby making larger physical search spaces or a larger number of frequencies practical. To enable selection of NNs a vector basis for the search space is required. The authors use the large eigenvectors of the covariance matrix for uncorrelated sources spread over the search region. This is not only a suitable vector basis of the search space, but also results in a dimensional reduction from the full set of eigenvectors, with a further computational saving. The replica vectors for the search region are partitioned by finding their projection on this vector basis. One can then select for matching only those replicas with similar squared projections on the vector basis. This selection process carries a modest cost in computing overhead, provided that the code, the partitioning, and the replica selection parameters are optimized. The detection performance and false alarm probability for the Bartlett beamformer, with and without selection of the replicas, were estimated from simulations of noisy data received on a vertical line array at practical time-bandwidth products. An order of magnitude speedup was obtained