Seabed Variability and its Influence on Acoustic Prediction Uncertainty
Abstract
LONG TERM GOALS. The long term goal is to assess and characterize uncertainty in the tactical naval environment. The focus is on the contribution of seabed variability to uncertainty in sonar performance predictions. In littoral warfare, the seabed is often a controlling factor in sonar system performance. OBJECTIVES. The specific objectives of this effort are to characterize the spatial variability of the seabed geoacoustic properties using remote acoustic methods and determine the uncertainties and errors associated with the estimation of the geoacoustic properties. In FY03 the objective was to develop the tools to describe how uncertainties propagate from remote acoustic measurements to meso-scale geoacoustic uncertainty and thence to system performance uncertainty. APPROACH. The approach was broken into three main task areas: 1) characterize the uncertainties in the remote acoustic methods (in particular the seabed reflection measurements), 2) propagate those uncertainties to geoacoustic properties and 3) demonstrate how the geoacoustic uncertainties propagate to uncertainty in system performance measures. The main efforts were placed in tasks 1 and 2. In addition, modeling and analysis of seabed variability data were continued on the New Jersey shelf (STRATFORM) and the Malta Plateau.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA628408
Entities
People
- W. Charles (Wilbur) Holland, Jr.
Organizations
- Pennsylvania State University