Adaptive pulselength correction (APLECORR): a strategy for waveformoptimization in ultrawideband active sonar

This paper describes adaptive pulselength correction (APLECORR), an environmentally adaptive technique for optimizing the detection performance in wide-band active sonars in so-called doubly spread channels. It works by allocating available transmit energy to frequency bands according to the in situ measured reverberation and ambient noise spectra. It optimizes the waveform and the detection processor at the same time. It is appealing in its simplicity and achieves significant gains whenever the reverberation-to-noise ratio is not constant across frequency, thus its applicability to wide-band systems. The method extends easily to PRN and other non-FM waveforms. The paper includes a proof that time spreading and frequency-spreading distortion have an approximately equivalent effect if the waveform is linear or hyperbolic frequency modulation     

Broad-band matched-field source localization in the east China Sea

An incoherent broad-band frequency (100-200 Hz) domain Bartlett processor is applied to the wide-band source (WBS) signals for source localization. The coupled normal mode-parabolic equation theory based on the WKBZ approximation is used to calculate the replica fields in the sloping bottom environment. The experimental analysis shows that the accuracy of the source localization is largely improved with the consideration of the slope of bottom. The range estimates of the majority of signals by localized by matched-field processing in the range from 30.0 to 50.0 km are consistent with the global positioning system measured ranges.     

Robust broadband matched-field processing: performance in shallowwater

An issue of concern for matched-field processing is the strong dependence between performance and precise knowledge about the environmental parameters. A robust matched-field processor based on minimax robust filtering methods was developed. Here, simulation methods are employed to evaluate the performance of the minimax robust method as well as other robust methods for a range-independent shallow water environment. The performance of the robust methods is compared with that of the nominal processor, that is, the processor based on a single set of environmental parameters thought to be closest to the actual. The matched-field processing performance is evaluated in terms of the peak-to-sidelobe ratio. The simulation results indicate that the robust methods provide significant performance improvements over the nominal processor in the presence of uncertainty in water column sound speed, channel depth, and sound speed in the bottom     

Real time time-frequency active sonar processing: a SIMD approach

A paradigm for massively parallel processing of matched filters, replica correlators, ambiguity functions, and time-frequency distributions is presented, using a SIMD (single instruction stream, multiple data stream) programming methodology. It is shown that active sonar detection algorithms, as implemented by frequency domain processing, can be a natural match to a SIMD methodology, meeting the extensive computational needs of enhanced active sonar systems. The decomposition process is presented, and examples are given of the output of the computer program CMASP (Connection Machine Ambiguity Surface Processor). CMASP can provide real-time simultaneous multiple-beam, Doppler, and waveform replica correlations. Synthetic data are processed, and the corresponding CMASP outputs are displayed as three-dimensional ambiguity surfaces on networked graphic workstations. Because of efficient problem decomposition, other time-frequency processing can be exploited. Specifically, real-time instantaneous-like time-frequency distributions have been realized in which the data set is presented and processed as time-varying spectral representations     

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     

Detailed study of the Brunhes/Matuyama reversal boundary on the east Pacific rise at 19°30′ S: Implications for crustal emplacement processes at an ultra fast spreading center

We have conducted the first detailed survey of the recording of a geomagnetic reversal at an ultra-fast spreading center. The survey straddles the Brunhes/Matuyama reversal boundary at 19°30 S on the east flank of the East Pacific Rise (EPR), which spreads at the half rate of 82 mm yr^-1. In the vicinity of the reversal boundary, we performed a three-dimensional inversion of the surface magnetic field and two-dimensional inversions of several near-bottom profiles including the effects of bathymetry. The surface inversion solution shows that the polarity transition is sharp and linear, and less than 3–4 km wide. These values constitute an upper bound because the interpretation of marine magnetic anomalies observed at the sea surface is limited to wavelengths greater than 3–4 km. The polarity transition width, which represents the distance over which 90% of the change in polarity occurs, is narrow (1.5–2.1 km) as measured on individual 2-D inversion profiles of near-bottom data. This suggests a crustal zone of accretion only 3.0–4.2 km wide. Our method offers little control on accretionary processes below layer 2B because the pillow and the dike layers in young oceanic crust are by far the most significant contributors to the generation of marine magnetic anomalies. The Deep-Tow instrument package was used to determine in situ the polarity of individual volcanoes and fault scarps in the same area. We were able to make 96 in situ polarity determinations which allowed us to locate the scafloor transition boundary which separates positively and negatively magnetized lava flows. The shift between the inversion transition boundary and the seafloor transition boundary can be used to obtain an estimate of the width of the neovolcanic zone of 4–10 km. This width is significantly larger than the present width of the neovolcanic zone at 19°30 S as documented from near-bottom bathymetric and photographic data (Bicknell et al., 1987), and also larger than the width of the neovolcanic zone at 21° N on the EPR as inferred by the three-dimensional inversion of near-bottom magnetic data (Macdonald et al., 1983). The eruption of positively magnetized lava flows over negatively magnetized crust from the numerous volcanoes present in the survey area and episodic flooding of the flanks of the ridge axis by extensive outpourings of lava erupting from a particularly robust magma chamber may result in a widened neovolcanic zone. We studied the relationship between spreading rate and polarity transition widths obtained from 2-D inversions of the near-bottom magnetic field over various spreading centers. The mean transition width corrected for the time necessary for the reversal to occur decreases with increasing spreading rate but our data set is still too sparse to draw firm conclusions from these observations. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that the range of the measured transition widths also decreases with spreading rate. In the light of these results, we propose a new model for the spreading rate dependency of polarity transition widths. At slow spreading centers, the zone of dike injection is narrow but the locus of crustal accretion is prone to small lateral shifts depending on the availability of magmatic sources, and the resulting polarity transition widths can be narrow or wide. At intermediate spreading centers, the zone of crustal accretion is narrow and does not shift laterally, which leads to narrower transition widths on the average than at slow spreading centers. An intermediate, or even a slow spreading center, may behave like a fast or hot-spot dominated ridge for short periods of time when its magmatic budget is increased due to melting events in the upper mantle. At fast spreading centers, the zone of dike injection is narrow, but the large magmatic budget of fast spreading centers may result in occasional extensive flows less than a few tens of meters thick from the axis and off-axis volcanic cones. These thin flows will not significantly contribute to the polarity transition widths, which remain narrow, but they may greatly increase the width of the neovolcanic zone. Finally the gabbro layer in the lower section of oceanic crust may also contribute to the observed polarity transition widths but this contribution will only become significant in older oceanic crust (50–100 m.y.).     

Continuous Reverberation Response and Comb Spectra Waveform Design

A model for the matched filter response to continuous reverberation from the transmission of broadband waveforms is developed. The application is for reverberation from a rough interface, based on perturbation theory. The model is developed for both the stationary rough bottom and the moving ocean surface interfaces. The mean reverberation is predicted as a function of the Doppler speed of the matched filter replica. Application is made to the design of waveforms with comb-like spectra. A uniform train of impulses produces a comb spectrum that is shown to significantly reject reverberation for a certain range of Doppler speeds. A similar low-reverberation response is produced from a continuous source emitting a wavetrain composed of adjacent hyperbolic-frequency-modulated (HFM) pulses. A waveform design technique is demonstrated to ensure continuity of the entire HFM wavetrain. Finally, waveforms with geometrically spaced comb spectra are considered. A new geometric comb waveform with constant amplitude is specified. However, this waveform requires a large bandwidth which may be difficult to obtain with practical high-power sources. Hard and soft-clipped versions of the comb spectra waveform are considered which provide useful compromises between the amount of reverberation suppression, the transmitted energy efficiency, and the utilization of available bandwidth.     

Active sonar detection in shallow water using the Page test

The use of active sonar in shallow water results in received echoes that may be considerably spread in time compared to the resolution of the transmitted waveform. The duration and structure of the spreading and the time of occurrence of the received echo are unknown without accurate knowledge of the environment and a priori information on the location and reflection properties of the target. A sequential detector based on the Page test is proposed for the detection of time-spread active sonar echoes. The detector also provides estimates of the starting and stopping times of the received echo. This signal segmentation is crucial to allow further processing such as more accurate range and bearing localization, depth localization, or classification. The detector is designed to exploit the time spreading of the received echo and is tuned as a function of range to the expected signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as determined by the transmitted signal power, transmission loss, approximate target strength, and the estimated noise background level. The theoretical false alarm and detection performance of the proposed detector, the standard Page test, and the conventional thresholded matched filter detector are compared as a function of range, echo duration, SNR, and the mismatch between the actual and assumed SNR. The proposed detector and the standard Page test are seen to perform better than the conventional thresholded matched filter detector as soon as the received echo is minimally spread in time. The use of the proposed detector and the standard Page test in active sonar is illustrated with reverberation data containing target-like echoes from geological features, where it was seen that the proposed detector was able to suppress reverberation generated false alarms that were detected by the standard Page test     

一种基于GPU和内存映射文件的高分辨率遥感图像快速处理方法

高分辨率遥感图像处理经常面临程序执行时间过长和内存空间不足的问题,虽然并行计算技术可以提高遥感图像的处理速度,但是无法降低算法占用的巨大内存空间。为了解决这一问题,本文提出了一种利用CUDA和内存映射文件的高分辨率遥感图像快速处理方法,并以K-Means算法为例进行了实现。其中,CUDA技术可以有效利用GPU强大的并行计算能力,而内存映射文件技术降低了磁盘I/O速度较慢对算法性能的影响。实验结果表明,本文方法比传统K-Means聚类算法计算速度提高了30倍左右,内存使用量降低了90%以上。     

A Statistical Analysis of the Detection Performance of a Broadband Splitbeam Passive Sonar

An operational passive sonar is required to detect signals from sources, which are subject to spatial and temporal coherence losses via modifications by the ocean environment. Furthermore, these signals are to be detected in the presence of frequency-dependent correlated noise fields. For a system which employs splitbeam cross-correlation processing, the spatial and spectral properties of the signal and noise are of significant import. Therefore, the exact probability density and cumulative distribution functions of the N-sampled correlator outputs of a splitbeam broadband passive sonar are derived for the case of Gaussian inputs which are described by arbitrary cross-spectral density matrices. The validity of approximating the exact probability density function (pdf) as a Gaussian distribution is investigated. The effect of signal coherence loss and noise correlation on the detection performance is considered and the associated processing loss is expressed as a degradation factor within the detection threshold equation     

利用线性调频脉冲进行帧同步的方法及性能

针对水声信道的特点,提出了一种利用具有大的时宽带宽积的线性调频信号作为帧同步信号的方法。该方法首先在接收端进行滑动时频分析,从而实现线性调频信号的检测及粗同步,再进一步利用拷贝相关处理来实现细同步。计算机仿真和海上试验结果均表明,该方法能够在多途干扰下有效地实现同步。     

HF radar data quality requirements for wave measurement

HF radar wave measurements are presented focussing on theoretical limitations, and thus radar operating parameters, and quality control requirements to ensure robust measurements across a range of sea states. Data from three radar deployments, off the west coast of Norway, Celtic Sea and Liverpool Bay using two different radar systems, WERA and Pisces, and different radio frequency ranges, are used to demonstrate the wave measurement capability of HF radar and to illustrate the points made. Aspects of the measurements that require further improvements are identified. These include modifications to the underlying theory particularly in high sea states, identification and removal of ships and interference from the radar signals before wave processing and/or intelligent partitioning to remove these from the wave spectrum. The need to match the radio frequency to the expected wave peak frequency and waveheight range, with lower radio frequencies performing better at higher waveheights and lower peak frequencies and vice versa, is demonstrated. For operations across a wide range of oceanographic conditions a radar able to operate at more than one frequency is recommended for robust wave measurement. Careful quality control is needed to ensure accurate wave measurements.     

Nonparametric Hard Limiting and Sign Detection of Narrow-Band Deterministic and Random Signals

Hard limiting or sign detection schemes for low-pass known and random signals in additive noise are popular as very simple signal detectors maintaining constant values for their false-alarm probabilities under the rather weak assumption that the sampled noise observations have zero median values. For nonparametric detection of narrow-band signals the natural extension of the zero medians assumption is the zero marginal medians assumption on the in-phase and quadrature noise components. Nonparametric detectors operating under this assumption are developed here for narrow-baud signals; these can be taken to be the logical counterparts of the low-pass sign correlator and polarity coincidence correlator detectors of low-pass theory. The concept of conditional testing, which has been applied previously to obtain efficient multilevel versions of low-pass sign detection schemes, is shown to enter quite naturally in the definition of narrow-band counterparts of the sign correlator and the polarity coincidence correlator detectors. It is also shown that under the diagonal symmetry extension of the low-pass univariate symmetry condition on the noise probability density function, multilevel extensions of these conditional test narrow-hand detectors may also be defined as counterparts of the multilevel conditional test schemes for low-pass signals.     

Optimal and Near-Optimal Signal Detection in Snapping Shrimp Dominated Ambient Noise

The optimal detection of signals requires detailed knowledge of the noise statistics. In many applications, the assumption of Gaussian noise allows the use of the linear correlator (LC), which is known to be optimal in these circumstances. However, the performance of the LC is poor in warm shallow waters where snapping shrimp noise dominates in the range 2-300 kHz. Since snapping shrimp noise consists of a large number of individual transients, its statistics are highly non-Gaussian. We show that the noise statistics can be described accurately by the symmetric alpha-stable family of probability distributions. Maximum-likelihood (ML) and locally optimal detectors based on the detailed knowledge of the noise probability distribution are shown to demonstrate enhanced performance. We also establish that the sign correlator, which is a nonparametric detector, performs better than the LC in snapping shrimp noise. Although the performance of the sign correlator is slightly inferior to that of the ML detector, it is very simple to implement and does not require detailed knowledge of the noise statistics. This makes it an attractive compromise between the simple LC and the complex ML detector     

The form of the asymptotic depth-limited wind-wave spectrum: Part III — Directional spreading

The directional spreading of both the wavenumber and frequency spectra of finite-depth wind generated waves at the asymptotic depth limit are examined. The analysis uses the Wavelet Directional Method, removing the need to assume a form for the dispersion relationship. The paper shows that both the wavenumber and frequency forms are narrowest at the spectral peak and broaden at wavenumbers (frequencies) both above and below the peak. The directional spreading of the wavenumber spectrum is bi-modal above the spectral peak. In contrast, the frequency spectrum is uni-modal. This difference is shown to be the result of energy in the wind direction being displaced from the linear dispersion shell. A full parametric relationship for the directional spreading of the wavenumber spectrum is developed. The analysis clearly shows that typical dispersion relationships are questionable at high frequencies and that such effects can be significant. This result supports greater attention being focussed on the routine recording of wavenumber spectra, rather than frequency spectra.     

Modified Pairwise Spectrogram Processing for Localization of Unknown Broadband Sources

Pairwise waveform (PWW) and pairwise spectrogram (PWS) processors for 3-D localization of unknown, continuous-wave, broadband sources in shallow water have been developed and implemented. The processors use sparse hydrophone arrays and are applicable to multiple sources, which can be unknown, continuous wave, and broadband. Here, we give new formulas for these two processors that significantly reduce computational requirements, making localization at longer ranges and higher frequencies feasible. The new processors are motivated by a demonstration that an incoherent version of the PWW (IPWW) processor (in which processor outputs at different frequencies are averaged after being processed independently) is the Bartlett processor without autoreceiver terms. The new PWW processor is mathematically equivalent to the original version, though much faster. The new PWS processor is mathematically equivalent to the original version only in the limit of infinite spectrogram window length, but for window lengths that are optimal with the old PWS processor, the new PWS processor gives essentially the same results with much greater speed. Simulations comparing PWS processing to Bartlett, PWW processing, and a time difference of arrival method indicate that the main advantage of PWS processing is for multiple sources in uncertain, high-noise environments at ranges many wavelengths long. With PWS, increased robustness with respect to mismatch is obtained at the expense of reduced resolution; varying PWS processor parameters (such as the size of windows used to create spectrograms) optimizes this tradeoff. This work is motivated by the problem of localizing singing humpback whales, and simulation results use whale sources.     

A Study of Spatial Processing Gain in Underwater Acoustic Communications

Spatial processing, including beamforming and diversity combining, is widely used in communications to mitigate intersymbol interference (ISI) and signal fading caused by multipath propagation. Beamforming suppresses ISI (and noise) by eliminating multipath (and noise) arrivals outside the signal beam. Beamforming requires the signals to be highly coherent between the receivers. Diversity combining combats ISI as well as signal fading by taking advantage of the independent information in the signal. Classical (spatial) diversity requires that signals are independently fading, hence are (spatially) uncorrelated with each other. In the real world, the received signals are neither totally coherent nor totally uncorrelated. The available diversity is complex and not well understood. In this paper, we study the spatial processing gain (SPG) as a function of the number of receivers used, receiver separation, and array aperture based on experimental data, using beamforming and multichannel combining algorithms. We find that the output symbol signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a multichannel equalizer is predominantly determined by the array aperture divided by the signal coherence length, with a negligible dependence on the number of receivers used. For a given number of receivers, an optimal output symbol SNR (OSNR) is achieved by spacing the receivers equal to or greater than the signal coherence length. We model the SPG in decibels as the sum of the noise suppression gain (NSG, equivalent to signal-to-noise enhancement) and the ISI suppression gain (ISG, equivalent to signal-to-ISI enhancement) both expressed in decibels; the latter exploits the spatial diversity and forms the basis for the diversity gain. Data are interpreted using the modeled result as a guide. We discuss a beam-domain processor for sonar arrays, which yields an improved performance at low-input SNR compared to the element-domain processor because of the SNR enhancement from beamforming many sensors.     

Spectral spreading from surface bubble motion

At low frequencies, surface bubbles contribute to acoustic backscattering in aggregate, and the motion of these bubble masses causes spectral spreading of the acoustic signals. This motion of the bubbles entrained in the surface waves is used to obtain the power spectrum of a low-frequency surface-scattered signal at a low grazing angle. A spectral distribution of the deterministic surface drift, augmented by breaking wave crests, is developed for the wave frequency components that are actively breaking. This motion is combined with the random motion in a wave cycle to predict the spectral widths of low-angle backscattered sound. To permit comparisons with measured data, convolutions of these spectra with simple square pulses of various durations are performed     

A comparative study of some directional sea models

Current specification of the ocean wave environment for the design of offshore platforms does not adequately describe the directional nature of a real seaway. The strong wave frequency dependent nature of the directional behavior of observed seas is often over-simplified for design. A general formulation encompassing a wide range of directional sea models is presented. Parameter values used in some of the more popular directional sea models are examined. Approximate expressions for the two frequency dependent parameters in a modified Longuet-Higgins cosine wave spreading model are presented. A general procedure which allows an engineer to estimate parameters for alternate wave spreading models is discussed. To illustrate this procedure an empirically based modified cosine spreading model is used as the basis to estimate frequency dependent parameters for circular normal and wrapped Gaussian wave spreading models. A comparison of the contours of the various directional sea models and the prediction of the root-mean-square velocity distribution is presented.     

Two-way time spreading and path loss in shallow water at 20-40 kHz

Two-way time spreading and path-loss measurements were collected in water 100 m deep, off the coast of Nova Scotia. Data were collected at frequencies of 20-22 kHz, 27-29 kHz, and 35-37 kHz using linear FM pulses 0.160 s in duration. The source-receiver was an anchored, high-frequency active sonar, and the target was a free-drifting echo repeater. Sonar and target positions were recorded using a portable tracking range. In the paper, two-way time spreading and path loss measurements are compared with modeled estimates obtained using an enhanced version of the generic sonar model (GSM). The GSM estimates of time spreading due to multipath propagation compare favorably with the experimental data. The model indicates that the path loss for individual eigenrays was extremely sensitive to fluctuations in the sound-speed profile. This led to substantial variation in the model output depending on the choice of profile. In place of the model, an empirical estimate of path loss was computed from the data. We obtained a two-way spreading loss of 2[18.4log₁₀(R)] where R is the range from sonar to target. The data were also used to compute the standard deviation of the received echo intensity at each frequency. The standard deviation was computed two different ways. First it was computed using the peak echo level from each of the pulses at a given frequency. Then, it was computed from the total energy received from each of the pings. At all frequencies, the standard deviation was 1-2 dB lower when computed from the total received energy