Seabed Geoacoustic Structure at the Meso-Scale

Abstract

LONG TERM GOALS: The long term science goals are to understand the nature of seabed variability at meso-scales O(101- 103) m and determine how meso-scale structures impact acoustic propagation, diffuse reverberation, and clutter. OBJECTIVES: The objectives are to develop new observational methods to quantify meso-scale seabed variability/ uncertainty and also develop modeling techniques to understand the impact of spatial variability on propagation and reverberation. APPROACH: The observational approach is based on direct path measurements of seabed reflection and scattering. The key advantages of this approach are: 1) high resolution vertically, 0.1m and laterally: inner scale of ~10m and outer scale of 100 km; 2) it substantially reduces uncertainties from the space/time-varying oceanography and biology due to short path lengths; 3) it requires a low source level, 4) can be hosted on an Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV), permitting observations of 3D meso-scale features, and making it an attractive eventuality as a survey tool. A cartoon of the system is shown in Figure 1.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA571682

Entities

People

  • W. Charles (Wilbur) Holland, Jr.

Organizations

  • Pennsylvania State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Propagation
  • Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
  • Coefficients
  • Databases
  • Fine Grained Materials
  • Frequency
  • High Resolution
  • Low Angles
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Plane Waves
  • Reflection
  • Reflectivity
  • Reverberation
  • Seabed
  • Seismic Reflection
  • Simulations

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Acoustical Oceanography.
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space