Acoustic multipath structure in direct zone of deep water and bearing estimation of tow ship noise of towed line array

In the towed line array sonar system, the tow ship noise is the main factor that affects the sonar performance. Conventional noise cancelling methods assume that the noise is towards the endfire direction of the array. An acoustic experiment employing a towed line array is conducted in the western Pacific Ocean, and a strange bearing-splitting phenomenon of the tow ship noise is observed in the array. The tow ship noise is split into multiple noise signals whose bearings are distributed between 10° and 90° deviating from the endfire direction. The multiple interferences increase the difficulty in recognizing the target for the sonar operator and noise cancellation. Therefore, making the mechanism clear and putting forward the tow ship noise splitting bearing estimation method are imperative. In this paper, the acoustic multi-path structure of the tow ship in deep water is analyzed. Then it is pointed out that the bearing-splitting phenomenon is caused by the main lobe of direct rays and bottom-reflected rays, as well as several side lobes of direct rays. Meanwhile, the indistinguishability between the elevation angle and the bearing angle due to the axial symmetry of a strict horizontal line array causes the bearing to deviate from the endfire direction. Based on the theory above, a method of estimating bearing of the tow ship noise in deep water is proposed. The theoretical analysis results accord with the experimental results, which helps to identify the target and provide correct initial bearing guidance for noise cancelation methods.     

The characteristic of sound propagation in deep water and underwater source localization in the direct zone

The multiple-path sound propagation in deep water is conducive to source localization of an underwater target.The transmission losses(TLs) and broadband pulse multiple-path propagation characteristics from a deep receiver is analyzed by using the experimental data from deep water area in the South China Sea(SCS).The results indicate that the width of the direct zone near the bottom of 4300 m water depth is about 30 km.The TLs in the direct zone near the bottom are much less than those in the shadow zone.It is meaningful for underwater sound source detection.Moreover,the time delay between the direct path and the bottomsurface-reflected path for a receiver near the bottom decreases monotonically with the source range.According to the linear relationship between the time delay of multipath and source range,a source localization method is presented to estimate the range of underwater target.The experimental results show that the estimated ranges are consistent with the global position system(GPS) measurements,and the mean square error of the estimation results is less than 0.28 km.     

深海本地界面混响平均强度模型与规律分析

为揭示深海多途传播效应及界面参数对本地界面混响强度的影响规律,将界面混响表述为不同多途混响衰落过程的非相干叠加结果,并结合界面散射的若干物理机制,建立了以海面海底物理参数为变量的混响强度模型.通过数值仿真和理论分析研究了不同多途混响强度的衰落特性、到达角的空间分布及部分物理参数对混响强度的影响,并利用南海海盆(典型泥质海底)实验数据对模型有效性进行验证.仿真结果表明,界面混响强度随时间变化呈现多峰结构,峰值时间与多途混响的到达时间分布一致。声源与接收器均位于近海面处时,首峰的峰值强度及其衰落过程由海面风速决定,其它峰的峰值强度由海面海底参数共同决定,但其衰落过程主要受到底质参数的影响.      

Multipath pulse shapes in shallow water: theory and simulation

In shallow water propagation the steeper ray angles are weakened most by boundary losses. Regarding the sound intensity as a continuous function of angle it can be converted into a function of travel time to reveal the multipath pulse shape received from a remote source (one-way path) or a target (two-way path). The closed-form isovelocity pulse shape is extended here to the case of upward or downward refraction. The envelope of the earliest arrivals is roughly trapezoidal with a delayed peak corresponding to the slowest, near horizontal refracted paths. The tail of the pulse falls off exponentially (linearly in decibels) with a decay constant that depends only on the bottom reflection properties and water depth, irrespective of travel time, a useful property for geoacoustic inversion and for sonar design. The nontrivial analytical problem of inverting explicit functions of angle into explicit functions of time is solved by numerical interpolation. Thus exact solutions can be calculated numerically. Explicit closed-form approximations are given for one-way paths. Two-way paths are calculated by numerical convolution. Using the wave model C-SNAP in several broadband cases of interest it is demonstrated that these solutions correspond roughly to a depth average of multipath arrivals.     

基于矢量水听器的深海直达波区域声传播特性及其应用

对于深海近水面声源产生的声场, 处于较大深度处的接收器在一定水平距离范围内能接收到直达波. 2014年在某深海海域进行的水声考察实验中, 应用深度为140 m的拖曳声源发射实验信号, 布放在水下3146 m深处的矢量水听器成功地接收到了直达波信号. 本文应用射线理论, 分析了深海直达波区域声场的传播特性, 得出了水平振速与垂直振速的传播损失与声线到达接收点处的掠射角以及收发水平距离之间的关系. 在以上分析的基础上, 提出了一种利用水平振速与垂直振速的能量差估计声源距离的方法, 并结合2014年实验数据对实验中两条航线上8 km范围内的目标声源进行了测距, 测距结果与目标的GPS数据符合得较好.     

Modeling three-dimensional propagation in a continental shelf environment

An acoustic propagation model is applied to predict measurements of three-dimensional (3-D) effects recorded off the southeast coast of Florida. The measured signal is produced by a low frequency source that is towed north parallel to the shelf from a fixed receiving array. The acoustic data show the direct path arrival at the bearing of the tow ship and a second refracted path arrival as much as 30° inshore of the direct arrival. Notably, the refracted arrival has a received level more than 25 dB greater than that of the direct arrival. A geoacoustic model of the environment is created to explain the data. It is shown that the topography of the seafloor plays the largest role in controlling horizontal refraction effects, whereas the range-dependent sediment properties have the most influence on the received level. The modeling approach is based on a 3-D adiabatic mode technique in which the horizontal refraction equation is solved using a parabolic equation in Cartesian coordinates. A modal decomposition of the field provides insight into the variability in the arrival angle and received level of the measured signal.     

能量加权时间特征用于浅海声源深度类型判别

针对浅海水面与水下低频宽带脉冲声源深度类型判别问题，提出了一种水平线列阵接收时利用能量加权到达时间特征判别声源深度类型的方法，并给出了工作频段选择的方法。该方法在脉冲宽度内以能量作为权值，对到达时间加权平均，将时间加权平均值与脉冲到达接收阵初始时间值的差值作为评判量，定义合适的水面与水下声源深度界限后，将评判量与拷贝声场中深度界限对应阈值比较，实现声源深度类型判别。经仿真数据验证，方法在等声速、负梯度、温跃层水文环境下的近距离声场均可实现。分析了声源距离、声源方位、海深、水平阵接收深度及阵列孔径等参数对方法性能的影响，进一步分析了声源距离失配、海底纵波声速失配、海深失配时方法的鲁棒性。除海底纵波声速失配时的影响较大外，方法具有较好的鲁棒性。     

浅海空气声入水传播特性分析

结合射线和波数谱积分方法,对空气声入水传播途径进行了分析,利用海上试验数据进行了比较检验。结果表明,在浅海环境中,对水下声场有主要贡献的空气声入水传播途径,主要是透射穿过海面边界的折射直达声以及后续的海底反射声途径,其中折射直达声途径的贡献主要集中在声源正下方附近区域,当距离较远时,由于声线扩展损失效应以及直达声影区两方面的限制,折射直达声传播损失显著增加,对接收声场起主要贡献的是可以到达更远水平距离上的海底反射声,包括海底海面多次反射声。      

深海大深度声传播特性及直达声区水下声源距离估计

深海大深度声传播特性对在深海近海底进行水声目标探测和定位具有重要意义。利用一次南海中南部深海不完全声道中的脉冲声传播实验数据,分析了海底附近大深度声传播损失及脉冲多途传播特性,并根据直达波和海底-海面反射波的时延差与收发距离的关系,提出一种利用深海直达声区脉冲多途到达时间进行水下声源距离估计的方法。结果表明:当接收器深度位于南海深海海底附近而声源深度较浅时,直达声区水平宽度可达30 km,传播损失相对影区来说较小,有利于水下声源探测;直达声区的直达波与海底-海面反射波的到达时延差随着收发距离的增大单调减小,可被用于水下声源距离估计。得到水下声源的距离估计结果与实验GPS测量结果较为一致,距离估计均方误差为0.28 km。      

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.     

深海声影区稀疏时延估计与声源测距

研究了深海声影区中经一次海底反射的多途声线到达垂直双水听器的时延差与声源位置的关系,提出了一种稀疏时延估计与声源测距方法。首先利用近海面布放的短间距垂直双水听器接收一定频带的声信号,然后计算接收信号的广义互相关函数,并利用频谱搬移和稀疏解卷积技术提取时延差,最后通过时延差匹配,估计水下声源的距离。仿真实验表明,在4300 m深海中,所提方法能够正确提取多途到达时延差,估计声影区内的声源距离。海试结果表明,当垂直接收孔径分别为21 m和30 m时,声源测距误差分别小于13.6%和8.1%。上述结果表明,所提出的时延估计方法可适应带宽较窄的接收信号,多途到达时延估计参数可用于实现声影区中的水下声源测距。      

Correlation characteristics of pseudonoise signals in the ocean at a highly directional reception

Data of experiments with single-path and multipath reception of broadband continuous pseudonoise acoustic signals (0.8–1.3 kHz) in a deep ocean are discussed. The experiments were carried out on tracks from ～ 60 to ～ 420 km in length, which corresponds to the first seven convergence zones. The data on the cross-correlation coefficients and arrival time differences are presented (for the first, second, and seventh zones) for signals received by one highly directional (～2°) vertical array or by two such arrays simultaneously at depths of 200 and 450 m. The correlation characteristics of signals propagating over purely water paths, i.e., without reflections from the waveguide boundaries, and arriving under different angles in the vertical plane are compared. It is found that the origin of the decorrelation of signals received from various directions or at different depths (all other factors being the same) is the incomplete resolution of the received multipath signals in the arrival angle in the vertical plane.     

A reliable acoustic path： Physical properties and a source localization method

<正>The physical properties of a reliable acoustic path(RAP) are analysed and subsequently a weighted-subspacefitting matched field(WSF-MF) method for passive localization is presented by exploiting the properties of the RAP environment.The RAP is an important acoustic duct in the deep ocean,which occurs when the receiver is placed near the bottom where the sound velocity exceeds the maximum sound velocity in the vicinity of the surface.It is found that in the RAP environment the transmission loss is rather low and no blind zone of surveillance exists in a medium range. The ray theory is used to explain these phenomena.Furthermore,the analysis of the arrival structures shows that the source localization method based on arrival angle is feasible in this environment.However,the conventional methods suffer from the complicated and inaccurate estimation of the arrival angle.In this paper,a straightforward WSF-MF method is derived to exploit the information about the arrival angles indirectly.The method is to minimize the distance between the signal subspace and the spanned space by the array manifold in a finite range-depth space rather than the arrival-angle space.Simulations are performed to demonstrate the features of the method,and the results are explained by the arrival structures in the RAP environment.     

一种基于序贯估计的直达声区水面舰船 被动测距方法 *

该文利用基于射线的盲解卷积方法，从直达声区的水面舰船噪声中提取出船和锚系于海底的垂直接收阵之间的时域信道响应，并利用直达波在不同阵元相对于参考阵元的到达时间差，通过序贯方法，利用射线模型和声速剖面信息，对水面舰船距接收阵的距离进行了估计。通过处理海深约为580 m的2016年美国圣巴巴拉海峡的实验数据，对1.6~3.5 km直达声区范围内Anna Maersk商船与垂直阵之间的距离进行了估计，验证了测距方法的有效性，并将结果与系统测量值和几何方法的估计值进行了比较。由于该方法不需要对海底参数进行估计，所以在海底参数未知时要优于传统匹配场方法；在声速剖面存在跃层且海底为多层分布的复杂信道条件下，该方法仍能对距离进行有效估计，且与测量值的相对误差在6%以内，小于几何方法的估计误差，测距结果精度较高。     

球形传声器阵列下基于主导声源检测MUSIC群时延算法的多声源定位*

针对混响环境中,多径效应、散射、衍射等原因导致声源定位失败或分辨能力不足的现象,提出一种基于主导声源检测MUSIC群时延的邻近多声源定位方法。该方法采用球形传声器阵列,相比平面阵列可以捕获3D声场信息,利用球谐域下信号的频率分量与角度分量解耦的优势,从而可直接利用频率平滑技术处理宽带语声信号而不需要构造聚焦矩阵,并在球谐域下通过设置阈值对一组时频段进行主导声源检测,从而选择出包含直达声的一组时频块来构造MUSIC群时延空间谱。上述举措在提升波达方向估计在高混响环境下定位鲁棒性的同时,也提高了多个邻近声源的分辨能力。仿真实验结果表明,所提出的主导声源检测MUSIC群时延算法,在高混响和低信噪比条件下,仍具有更好的定位精度与更优的邻近多声源分辨效果。     

深海海底反射会聚区声传播特性

在深海声道条件下,海水折射效应会使得声场出现会聚效应;在不完全声道条件下,深海海底对声场具有重要影响.利用在中国南海海域收集到的一次深海声传播实验数据,研究了深海不完全声道环境下的海底反射对声传播的影响.实验观测到不同于深海会聚区的海底反射会聚现象,在直达声区范围内的海底地形隆起可导致海底反射会聚区提前形成,并使得部分影区的声强明显提高.由于不平坦海底和海面的反射破坏了完全声道环境下的会聚区结构,在60 km范围内存在两个海底反射会聚区,会聚区增益可达10 dB以上,同时在11 km附近的影区和51 km附近形成高声强区域.当接收深度与声源深度相同时,第二会聚区的增益高于第一会聚区.在第一会聚区内,随着接收深度的增加,声线到达结构趋于复杂,多途效应更加明显.使用抛物方程数值分析结合射线理论对深海海底反射会聚区现象产生的物理原因进行了分析解释.研究结果对于声纳在深海复杂环境下的性能分析具有重要的指导意义.     

深海海底斜坡环境下的声传播

海底地形变化对声传播具有很大影响,在南海深海区域海底斜坡环境下进行了一次声传播实验,实验显示倾斜海底环境下声传播损失出现了一些不同于平坦海底环境下的现象,分析并解释了海底地形变化对产生声传播差异的原因.结果表明,海底斜坡对声波的反射增强作用可使斜坡上方的声传播损失减少约5 d B.当声波第一次入射到达的海底位置有较小幅度的山丘(凸起高度小于1/10海深)时,海底小山丘即可对声波有反射遮挡作用,导致在其反射区特定传播距离和深度上出现倒三角声影区,比平坦海底环境下相同影区位置处的传播损失增大约8 d B,影响深度可达海面以下1500 m.而海底斜坡对声波的反射阻挡作用使得从海面反射及水体向下折射的会聚区结构消失,只剩下从水体向上折射的会聚结构.因此,海底地形对深海声传播影响较大,在水下目标探测和性能评估等应用中应予以重视.     

Comparison of hybrid three-dimensional modeling with measurements on the continental shelf

During the CALOPS 2007 experiment, off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, three-dimensional (3D) multipath was observed using a bottom mounted horizontal line array during source tows along the 200 m isobath [Kevin D. Heaney and James J. Murray, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125(4), 1394-1402 (2008)]. In this paper a hybrid modeling approach is presented to model the 3D sound on the Florida shelf, nearly shaped like the canonical wedge. The hybrid approach combines vertical acoustic normal modes with the parabolic equation solution (in range/cross-range). The approach is shown to satisfy the 3D Cartesian-coordinate wave equation in the limit of adiabatic mode propagation. In the adiabatic mode parabolic equation (AMPE) approach modal phase speeds vs position are used as the input to the parabolic equation computation with dimensions of easting (km) and northing (km). Vertical adiabatic modes and horizontal rays are also computed to illustrate the 3D multipath arrival. The AMPE field is computed for all the modes for each element of the horizontal array. Beamforming vs source range is then conducted and excellent agreement with data is achieved.     

利用拖船辐射噪声的深海声学参数近场匹配场反演方法

针对深海声学参数难以通过远距离合作声源反演获取的问题,提出了利用拖船低频噪声近场匹配场反演方法。首先,利用聚焦波束形成计算拖曳阵接收拖船噪声的方向性,获得传播路径特征;然后,构建多参数反演模型,由波数积分声传播模型计算拷贝场,采用遗传算法对多频匹配场目标函数进行反演。同时,采用蒙特卡罗方法分析参数后验概率密度。仿真与试验结果表明:深海环境中拖曳阵接收拖船噪声主要来自海底反射路径,利用该特性反演得到海水深度、噪声源距离、阵列深度、沉积层厚度等参数,多频联合反演可以提高沉积层厚度等参数反演准确性。宽带匹配场处理表明,利用反演最优参数模型能准确给出拖船噪声源的空间位置。      

Modeling acoustic propagation of airgun array pulses recorded on tagged sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)

In 2002 and 2003, tagged sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) were experimentally exposed to airgun pulses in the Gulf of Mexico, with the tags providing acoustic recordings at measured ranges and depths. Ray trace and parabolic equation (PE) models provided information about sound propagation paths and accurately predicted time of arrival differences between multipath arrivals. With adequate environmental information, a broadband acoustic PE model predicted the relative levels of multipath arrivals recorded on the tagged whales. However, lack of array source signature data limited modeling of absolute received levels. Airguns produce energy primarily below 250 Hz, with spectrum levels about 20-40 dB lower at 1 kHz. Some arrivals recorded near the surface in 2002 had energy predominantly above 500 Hz; a surface duct in the 2002 sound speed profile helps explain this effect, and the beampattern of the source array also indicates an increased proportion of high-frequency sound at near-horizontal launch angles. These findings indicate that airguns sometimes expose animals to measurable sound energy above 250 Hz, and demonstrate the influences of source and environmental parameters on characteristics of received airgun pulses. The study also illustrates that on-axis source levels and simple geometric spreading inadequately describe airgun pulse propagation and the extent of exposure zones.