Particle filtering for passive fathometer tracking

Seabed interface depths and fathometer amplitudes are tracked for an unknown and changing number of sub-bottom reflectors. This is achieved by incorporating conventional and adaptive fathometer processors into sequential Monte Carlo methods for a moving vertical line array. Sediment layering information and time-varying fathometer response amplitudes are tracked by using a multiple model particle filter with an uncertain number of reflectors. Results are compared to a classical particle filter where the number of reflectors is considered to be known. Reflector tracking is demonstrated for both conventional and adaptive processing applied to the drifting array data from the Boundary 2003 experiment. The layering information is successfully tracked by the multiple model particle filter even for noisy fathometer outputs.     

Coherent averaging of the passive fathometer response using short correlation time

The passive fathometer algorithm was applied to data from two drifting array experiments in the Mediterranean, Boundary 2003 and 2004. The passive fathometer response was computed with correlation times from 0.34 to 90 s and, for correlation times less than a few seconds, the observed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) agrees with a 1D model of SNR of the passive fathometer response in an ideal waveguide. In the 2004 experiment, the fathometer response showed the array depth varied periodically with an amplitude of 1 m and a period of 7 s consistent with wave driven motion of the array. This introduced a destructive interference, which prevents the SNR growing with increasing correlation time. A peak-tracking algorithm applied to the fathometer response of experimental data was used to remove this motion allowing the coherent passive fathometer response to be averaged over several minutes without destructive interference. Multirate adaptive beamforming, using 90 s correlation time to form adaptive steer vectors which were applied to 0.34 s data snapshots, increases the SNR of the passive fathometer response.     

Passive fathometer processing

Ocean acoustic noise can be processed efficiently to extract Green's function information between two receivers. By using noise array-processing techniques, it has been demonstrated that a passive array can be used as a fathometer [Siderius, et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 120, 1315-1323 (2006)]. Here, this approach is derived in both frequency and time domains and the output corresponds to the reflection sequence. From this reflection sequence, it is possible to extract seabed layering. In the ocean waveguide, most of the energy is horizontally propagating, whereas the bottom information is contained in the vertically propagating noise. Extracting the seabed information requires a dense array, since the resolution of the bottom layer is about half the array spacing. If velocity sensors are used instead of pressure sensors, the array spacing requirement can be relaxed and simulations show that just one vertical velocity sensor is sufficient.     

利用海洋环境噪声估计浅海海底表层声速

为提高反演效率,提出一种快速估计浅海海底表层声速的方法。根据噪声能流理论,垂直阵接收的海洋环境噪声数据能够用于无源提取海底反射损失,反射损失曲线中具有明显的临界角效应,从而接估计海底表层声速。以射线模型为基础,推导了噪声提取的反射损失与理论值之间的差异,并讨论实际阵列波束形成在不同角度和频率下的性能。考虑到非等声速环境下声线会发生弯曲,需对角度进行修正以提高方法的广泛适用性。不同频率的临界角与有效深度之间存在对应关系,黄海某海区数据处理结果表明,在临界角不变的有效深度内,海底表层可以视为等声速层,该海区海底表层0.5 m内声速估计结果为1547 m/s,与有源反演结果相近。      

利用海洋环境噪声直接提取海底反射系数

提出了一种利用海洋环境噪声直接(非迭代)提取海底反射系数的方法,基于海洋环境噪声垂直相关函数与方向密度函数的相似性,结合海洋环境噪声射线理论,由两个垂直排列的水听器实现海底反射系数的被动获取.方法适应性的仿真分析说明较高海况下且近场无航船干扰的海洋环境噪声数据有利于方法的实现;对于两层海底,海洋环境噪声垂直相干函数经高...     

一种海洋环境噪声分步反演地声参数方法

分析不同海底参数对环境噪声垂向空间特性的敏感度,根据海底密度对环境噪声垂直指向性的小掠射角部分不敏感,而对等效海底损失的大掠射角部分相对敏感的特点,提出了一种海洋环境噪声分步反演地声参数方法:先用环境噪声垂直指向性小掠射角部分反演海底声速、衰减;之后利用大掠射角部分来反演海底密度。仿真算例和海上实验数据处理结果验证了该方法的有效性。结果表明:分步反演加强了匹配物理量对海底参数敏感部分的关注,在反演结果精度(海底密度)以及反演效率上都有所改善,具有一定可行性。      

Passive acoustic tomography of the ocean using arrays of unknown shape

It was recently established that ocean acoustic tomography based on an inversion of ray travel times can be implemented without use of any dedicated sound sources by cross-correlating the ambient noise recorded on two line arrays, the shapes of which are known. In contrast to active tomography, the amount of useful information from noise interferometry is proportional to the product of the numbers of receivers in the two arrays. In our study based on the 2D and 3D numerical experiments, we examine a hypothesis concerning the feasibility of simultaneous performance of a passive ray tomography and passive positioning of arrays through cross-correlation of ambient or shipping noise. The numerical experiments are conducted under conditions close to those of a field experiment on passive ocean tomography. It is demonstrated that, when using arrays of 20–40 hydrophones, the sound velocity profile and the array shape can be found from noise correlation to an accuracy adequate for oceanological and acoustic applications.     

风成噪声背景下垂直阵阵列信噪比随声源深度的变化规律

风成噪声是海洋中最广泛存在的环境噪声、是被动声纳处理性能的重要影响因素.它具有一个典型的物理性质是很大程度上只对应中高阶模态.阵列信噪比计入了阵列采样辐射声强、背景噪声功率和阵处理增益,是决定声纳阵列处理性能的关键物理量.本文研究了受风成噪声模态结构影响,典型夏季浅海环境中垂直阵阵列信噪比随声源深度的变化关系.在简正波模深函数采样完整的假设条件下,理论证明了阵列信噪比随声源深度的变化可近似为低阶模态幅度强度(模深函数模值的平方)随深度变化的线性叠加,且模态阶数越低,贡献越大;并且,在强风成噪声背景、显著负梯度环境下该变化规律可由1阶模态幅度强度随深度的变化近似独立表征.以上结果表明,在同一声源距离条件下,声源置于水体下半部分时的阵列信噪比比置于海面附近更大,并且在位于1阶模态峰值点所在深度附近时达到最大.典型负声速梯度浅海环境中的仿真实验结果对理论分析进行了验证,并表明在一定条件下阵列信噪比随声源深度的变化与声源距离近似无关.     

Matched-field depth estimation for active sonar

This work concerns the problem of estimating the depth of a submerged scatterer in a shallow-water ocean by using an active sonar and a horizontal receiver array. As in passive matched-field processing (MFP) techniques, numerical modeling of multipath propagation is used to facilitate localization. However, unlike passive MFP methods where estimation of source range is critically dependent on relative modal phase modeling, in active sonar source range is approximately known from travel-time measurements. Thus the proposed matched-field depth estimation (MFDE) method does not require knowledge of the complex relative multipath amplitudes which also depend on the unknown scatterer characteristics. Depth localization is achieved by modeling depth-dependent relative delays and elevation angle spreads between multipaths. A maximum likelihood depth estimate is derived under the assumption that returns from a sequence of pings are uncorrelated and the scatterer is at constant depth. The Cramér-Rao lower bound on depth estimation mean-square-error is computed and compared with Monte Carlo simulation results for a typical range-dependent, shallow-water Mediterranean environment. Depth estimation performance to within 10% of the water column depth is predicted at signal-to-noise ratios of greater than 10 dB. Real data results are reported for depth estimation of an echo repeater to within 10-m accuracy in this same shallow water environment.     

Tracking sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) dive profiles using a towed passive acoustic array

A passive acoustic method is presented for tracking sperm whale dive profiles, using two or three hydrophones deployed as either a vertical or large-aperture towed array. The relative arrival times between the direct and surface-reflected acoustic paths are used to obtain the ranges and depths of animals with respect to the array, provided that the hydrophone depths are independently measured. Besides reducing the number of hydrophones required, exploiting surface reflections simplifies automation of the data processing. Experimental results are shown from 2002 and 2003 cruises in the Gulf of Mexico for two different towed array deployments. The 2002 deployment consisted of two short-aperture towed arrays separated by 170 m, while the 2003 deployment placed an autonomous acoustic recorder in tandem with a short-aperture towed array, and used ship noise to time-align the acoustic data. The resulting dive profiles were independently checked using single-hydrophone localizations, whenever multipath reflections from the ocean bottom could be exploited to effectively create a large-aperture vertical array. This technique may have applications for basic research and for real-time mitigation for seismic airgun surveys.     

岛礁海域海洋环境噪声垂直分布和垂直指向性

依据岛礁海域复杂海底地形、海试期间航船分布和实测风速数据,应用射线声传播理论,建立岛礁海域海洋环境噪声三维模型。在海试岛礁海域深海声道条件下,采用射线3D算法,仿真计算了32元垂直测量阵所处265~885 m负声速梯度深度范围内1 kHz风关和50 Hz远处航船海洋环境噪声级垂直分布,以及50 Hz航船海洋环境噪声垂直指向性,并与实测分析进行比较。结果表明,仿真结果与海试实测数据一致性良好。在本例海底起伏、接收点周边存在众多岛礁和海底山的三维环境中,1 kHz风关海洋环境噪声级随深度分布较近于均匀;西南方向较远处航道区海域海底较平坦,航道区至接收阵为缓斜坡海底,50 Hz远处航船海洋环境噪声级随深度有所增加,其噪声垂直指向性无明显水平凹槽。文中建立的岛礁海域海洋环境噪声三维模型,可较好地表征本例岛礁复杂地形海底起伏海域的风关和航船海洋环境噪声级的垂直分布、及航船环境噪声的垂直指向性,实测和仿真的岛礁海域海洋环境噪声相关数据,可供实际应用及相关研究参考。      

Estimation of efficiency of vertical antenna arrays in underwater sound channels

The gain of the vertical antenna array in a randomly inhomogeneous ocean waveguide is numerically simulated on the assumption that the useful signal is generated by a finite set of mutually uncorrelated discrete spectrum modes and is received against the ocean noise background. It is shown that the choice of themost effective weight distribution of the array and the thus obtained gain strongly depend on both the modal spectra of the signal and noise and the number and position of the receiving elements in the channel. The critical factor is the mutual orthogonality of the waveguide modes at the array input, which indicates the possibility of specially arranging the elements for the known (expected) mode spectrum of the signal.     

Passive ranging based on acoustic field interference structure using double arrays(elements)

Two kinds of passive ranging algorithms are proposed combined with waveguide invariant theory based on the important characteristic of the ocean waveguide that the interference structure is stable and can be observed in the low-frequency acoustic field,in order to explore the passive ranging method suitable for the towed line array sonar.The double arrays (elements)model is adopted,so the LOFARgram and bearing-time records of the each array (element)can be obtained.Then the frequency-time records can be extracted by processing the LOFARgram via Radon transform,so the passive ranging can be achieved combined the corresponding ranging algorithms.And the feasibility of the algorithms has been verified by simulation researches and positioning accuracy analysis.     

Evidence of Doppler-shifted Bragg scattering in the vertical plane by ocean surface waves

A set of narrowband tones (280, 370, 535, and 695 Hz) were transmitted by an acoustic source mounted on the ocean floor in 10 m deep water and received by a 64-element hydrophone line array lying on the ocean bottom 1.25 km away. Beamformer output in the vertical plane for the received acoustic tones shows evidence of Doppler-shifted Bragg scattering of the transmitted acoustic signals by the ocean surface waves. The received, scattered signals show dependence on the ocean surface wave frequencies and wavenumber vectors, as well as on acoustic frequencies and acoustic mode wavenumbers. Sidebands in the beamformer output are offset in frequency by amounts corresponding to ocean surface wave frequencies. Deviations in vertical arrival angle from specular reflection agree with those predicted by the Bragg condition through first-order perturbation theory using measured directional surface wave spectra and acoustic modes measured by the horizontal hydrophone array.     

On the possibility of using acoustic reverberation for remote sensing of ocean dynamics

The two-point correlation function of diffuse noise fields produced by distributed random sound sources carries useful information on the medium of sound propagation. Such information can be used for performing passive acoustic tomography of the ocean. In a number of cases that are important for practice, the noise field in the ocean is predominated by contributions of individual point sources. Here, a theoretical study is presented on the possibility of determining the sound speed and current velocity in the water column by the correlation processing of reverberation signals measured by two vertical receiving arrays. In other words, we study the possibility of replacing the diffuse noise produced by a great number of delta-correlated sources by waves generated by a localized source and scattered at the rough surface and bottom of the ocean for sensing the medium. The correlation function of scattered waves is calculated by using the method of small perturbations. It is shown that the correlation processing of the scattered waves offers an opportunity of measuring the acoustic nonreciprocity and reconstructing the field of sound speed in the fluid, without using any acoustiLc transceivers.     

利用环境噪声互相关实现散射体无源成像

最近研究表明利用环境噪声的互相关可以恢复两点之间的时域格林函数(声脉冲响应),这一原理在文献中被称为格林函数恢复。基于此原理,通过对多个传声器所接收的环境噪声进行互相关处理,获取与散射体相关联的散射波的到达时延信息,结合最小二乘反演算法和改进克希霍夫移位算法,分别获得道路交通噪声场中石柱以及海浪噪声场中塑料桶的空间位置,且其估计结果与实际测量相一致。实验结果表明将环境噪声作为探测信号进行散射体无源成像是可行的。这为设计室内无源声监测系统以及通过海洋环境噪声实现对水中静默目标成像提供了新思路和有益参考。      

Higher-order interference of low-coherence optical fiber sensors

The higher-order interference noise that is caused by multireflection at the fiber sensor's end surface in low-coherence fiber sensor array is proposed. The generation of the higher-order interference noise and its quantity and amplitude are theoretically analyzed. The second-order interference noises are experimentally demonstrated. The results show that the second-order noises arise in any sensor array composed of more than two sensors and the number of the second-order peaks is proportional to the third power of the sensor's number. The ratio of the amplitude of the second-order noise to that of the signal peak is proportional to the reflectivity of the sensor's end surface. In a sensor array, when the reflectivity is more than 10(-5), the amplitude of the second-order noise is higher than other noises and it becomes a main factor that determines the signal-to-noise ratio of the sensor arrays. Therefore, reducing the higher-order interference noise can improve the multiplexing capacity of the sensor array.     

基于声场干涉结构的双水平阵(元)被动测距

为探寻适用于拖曳线列阵声呐的被动测距方法,基于海洋波导的重要特征一低频声场具有稳定可观察的干涉结构,结合波导不变量理论提出了两种被动测距算法。采用双水平阵(元)模型,分别获得各阵(元)的LOFAR图和方位时间历程后,对LOFAR图进行Radorn变换提取干涉条纹的频率时间历程,进而结合各测距算法实现被动测距。并通过仿真研究和定位精度分析,验证了算法的可行性。      

海洋环境噪声空间相关特性建模综述*

相对于大多数声纳,海洋环境噪声通常被视为背景干扰。水听器基阵的信噪比增益成为了基阵设计和性能估计的重要参数。从空间相关特性的角度看,当信号场已知时,阵增益可唯一由噪声场的空间相关特性来确定,这就是海洋环境噪声空间相关特性建模的动机。根据环境和声场之不同,文献中已给出几种不同的噪声场模型。为了阐明已有模型的特点及未来的研究方向,本文对噪声场空间相关特性建模做了简要综述。     

Application of time reversal to passive acoustic remote sensing of the ocean

This paper investigates a novel approach to processing records of ambient noise in the ocean that are measured concurrently in spatially separated locations. The approach is a synthesis of two well-known phase-coherent signal processing techniques. At the first stage of processing, an approximation to the transient acoustic Green function is found by the method of noise interferometry. At the second stage, the approximate Green function is time reversed and back propagated from the location of one of the receivers, thereby producing a focus in the vicinity of the other receiver. Unlike the earlier work, measurements at just two points (rather than vertical array measurements) are used when the sound-propagation range is large compared to the ocean depth. The requirement for optimal focusing of the back-propagated field is shown to lead to extraction of estimates of the unknown physical parameters of the waveguide and, hence, to passive acoustic remote sensing of the ocean.