Regions where transient signals are influenced between a source and receiver

At infinite frequency, the only place that a medium can influence the waveform of a received signal that is emitted from a source is along one or more infinitesimally thin ray paths. For any transient signal at finite frequencies, an exact method is developed to compute the regions in a medium that significantly influence the received signal for any specified window of signal travel time. This window is sometimes chosen to surround a peak. Results at finite frequencies differ from those at infinite frequency because of diffraction. The method has its foundation in the integral theorem of Helmholtz and Kirchhoff. Part of the method involves a filter that yields an imperfect but apparently useful picture of influential regions in the presence of interfering waves. The method is useful for quantifying differences between the region of influence and a ray, and for identifying regions in which medium fluctuations significantly influence signal aberrations at a receiver. Four principal results are found at low frequencies. They are: 1) For propagation in homogeneous media, a significant portion of the received signal is influenced by waves that traverse paths that are approximately integer and half-integer numbers of cycles greater than the straight path between source and receiver. Such paths are called 'constructive and destructive paths of influence', respectively. They correspond to edge-diffracted rays for the geometrical theory of diffraction. 2) For reflection from a flat interface in an otherwise homogeneous medium, the received signal is significantly influenced by constructive and destructive paths of influence whose angles of incidence and reflection differ (non-specular reflection). 3) For acoustic propagation centered at 100 Hz in an oceanic acoustic waveguide, the region of influence markedly departs from a ray path, particularly near the reflective ocean surface. The influential region is flat for O(10) km instead of O(1) km for a ray. 4) The first Fresnel zone is an inappropriate scale to characterize the region of influence for transient signals near a steep ray in inhomogeneous media, as assumed by at least one scattering theory. Modification of that theory may yield a better fit with data.     

The possibility of using a vertical array for estimating the delays of sound pulses at multimegameter ranges

The majority of schemes used for acoustic monitoring of temperature fields in the ocean are based on measuring the variations of the so-called ray arrival times, i.e., the travel times of sound pulses along different ray trajectories connecting a source and a receiver. The solution of the inverse problem is considerably hindered by the fact that, in the case of signal detection by a point receiver, it is possible to resolve only the sound pulses propagating along steep rays. To a large extent, this is caused by the phenomenon of ray chaos, which is fully developed at distances of about one thousand of kilometers. The present study shows that the use of a vertical receiving array provides an opportunity to loosen this restriction. An appropriate space-time processing procedure is proposed. The procedure is based on the characteristics of ray arrival distribution in the time-depth plane that remain stable even under the conditions of ray chaos.     

Proposed method of partial discharge allocation with acoustic emission sensors within power transformers

Employing acoustic emission sensors for detection of partial discharge, PD, introduces many advantages. Besides easy installation and replacement, they are non-invasive and immune to electromagnetic noise and interference and their sensitivity does not vary with object capacitance. For PD allocating utilizing AE sensors, distance calculations are based on the arrival time of acoustic waves to the sensors. Considering structure-borne waves of higher speed, the peaks of some of indirect path AE signals with significant contribution are mistakenly considered as peaks of direct path AE signals. Furthermore, the acoustic signals are propagating through certain parts of the transformer, such as the windings, and this complicates the partial discharge detection and allocation. These would imply an incorrect distance between the source and sensor. A method based on a heuristic algorithm has been proposed which considering all possible indirect paths with the relevant propagation times and all the barriers on the travel path of acoustic signal, calculates the more precise arrival times to sensors. A test chamber has been utilized and artificial PD signals are produced at various points. Output results of algorithm have been compared with results of classic method. It has been shown that proposed method significantly reduces the positioning errors.     

利用海底反射信号进行地声参数反演的方法

针对现有反演方法的缺点,提出了一种基于海底反射信号的地声参数高分辨反演方法.它利用短距离声源在不同深度上发射宽带线性调频信号,采用垂直阵进行接收,首先通过匹配滤波方法提取多径到达信息,然后利用海底反射损失曲线,反演海底表层的声速和密度,最后利用浅底层反射信号估计沉积层参数.由于海水中直达波受到内波的强烈影响,选择海底表面反射作为参考,用以可靠地计算浅底层反射的相对到达时间和幅度,从而估计出沉积层的厚度、速度和衰减系数.通过海上实验,验证了利用浅底层反射信号反演参数的有效性. 关键词： 海底参数 反演 浅底层反射信号     

Temporal coherence of sound transmissions in deep water revisited

This paper examines the signal coherence loss due to internal waves in deep water in terms of the signal coherence time and compare to data reported in the literature over the past 35 years. The coherence time of the early raylike arrivals was previously modeled by Munk and Zachariasen ["Sound propagation through a fluctuating stratified ocean: Theory and observation," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 59, 818-838 (1976)] using the supereikonal approximation and by Dashen et al. ["Path-integral treatment of acoustic mutual coherence functions for arrays in a sound channel," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 77, 1716-1722 (1985)] using the path integral approach; a -1 [corrected] power frequency dependence and a -1/2 [corrected] power range dependence were predicted. Recent data in shallow water in downward refractive environments with internal waves suggested that the signal coherence time of the mode arrivals follows a -3/2 power frequency dependence and a -1/2 power range dependence. Since the temporal coherence of the acoustic signal is related to the temporal coherence of the internal waves, based on the observation that the (linear) internal waves in deep and shallow waters have a similar frequency spectrum, it is argued that the modelike arrivals in deep water should exhibit a similar frequency dependence in deep and shallow waters. This argument is supported by a brute-force application of the path integral to mode arrivals based on the WKB relation between the ray and mode. It is found that the data are consistent with the -3/2 power frequency dependence but more data are needed to further test the hypothesis.     

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.     

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.     

Internal-wave time evolution effect on ocean acoustic rays

A range-dependent field of sound speed in the ocean, c(x,z), caused by internal waves, can give rise to instabilities in acoustic ray paths. Past work has shown the importance of the background, range-independent, sound-speed profile; the ray initial conditions; the source-receiver geometry (depths and range); and the strength of the internal waves. However, in the past the time evolution of the internal waves has been ignored on the grounds that the speed of internal waves is much slower than the speed of the acoustic wave. It is shown here by numerical simulation that two rays with identical initial conditions, traveling through an ocean with the same background profile and the same random realization of internal waves, but with the internal waves frozen in one case and evolving in the other, travel significantly different trajectories. The dependence of this "frozen-unfrozen" difference on the initial ray launch angle, the background profile, and the strength of the internal-wave spectrum, is investigated. The launch-angle difference that generates similar arrival-depth differences to those induced by internal-wave time evolution is on the order of 100 microrad. The pattern of differences is measured here by the arrival depth at the final range of 1000 km. The observed pattern as a function of launch angle, change in the background profile, and change in internal-wave strength is found to be nearly the same for "frozen-unfrozen" change as for a slight change in launch angle.     

Fluctuating arrivals of short-range acoustic data

Geoacoustic inversion using fluctuating signal observations can be challenging. The origin of these fluctuations needs to be understood so the signals can be used appropriately. A set of experiments [Tang et al., Oceanogr. 20(4), 156-167 (2007)] was carried out in shallow water near the New Jersey shelf break in summer 2006. Significant fluctuations in the direct path and surface-reflected arrivals of short-range chirp transmissions (1.1-2.9 kHz) were observed on a vertical line array. This paper explains the origin of these signal fluctuations through analysis of the arrival amplitudes. It is shown that the strong thermocline combined with an oscillating source motion due to ocean surface waves results in the signal fluctuations.     

Using streamlines to visualize acoustic energy flow across boundaries

For spherical waves that radiate from a point source in a homogeneous fluid and propagate across a plane boundary into a dissimilar homogeneous fluid, the acoustic field may differ significantly from the geometric acoustic approximation if either the source or receiver is near the interface (in acoustic wavelengths) or if the stationary phase path is near the critical angle. In such cases, the entire acoustic field must be considered, including inhomogeneous waves associated with diffraction (i.e., those components that vanish with increasing frequency). The energy flow from a continuous-wave monopole point source across the boundary is visualized by tracing acoustic streamlines: those curves whose tangent at every point is parallel to the local acoustic intensity vector, averaged over a wave cycle. It is seen that the acoustic energy flow is not always in line with the "Snell's law" or stationary phase path. Also, plots of acoustic energy streamlines do not display unusual behavior in the vicinity of the critical angle. Finally, it is shown that there exists a law of refraction of acoustic energy streamlines at boundaries with density discontinuities analogous to Snell's law of refraction of ray paths across sound speed discontinuities. Examples include water-to-seabed transmission and water-to-air transmission.     

A Simple Method for Source Depth Estimation with Multi-path Time Delay in Deep Ocean

A method of source depth estimation based on the multi-path time delay difference is proposed.When the minimum time arrivals in all receiver depths are snapped to a certain time on time delay-depth plane,time delay arrivals of surface-bottom reflection and bottom-surface reflection intersect at the source depth.Two hydrophones deployed vertically with a certain interval are required at least.If the receiver depths are known,the pair of time delays can be used to estimate the source depth.With the proposed method the source depth can be estimated successfully in a moderate range in the deep ocean without complicated matched-field calculations in the simulations and experiments.     

Spatial correlation of the high intensity zone in deep-water acoustic field

The spatial correlations of acoustic field have important implications for underwater target detection and other applications in deep water. In this paper, the spatial correlations of the high intensity zone in the deep-water acoustic field are investigated by using the experimental data obtained in the South China Sea. The experimental results show that the structures of the spatial correlation coefficient at different ranges and depths are similar to the transmission loss structure in deep water. The main reason for this phenomenon is analyzed by combining the normal mode theory with the ray theory. It is shown that the received signals in the high intensity zone mainly include one or two main pulses which are contributed by the interference of a group of waterborne modes with similar phases. The horizontal-longitudinal correlations at the same receiver depth but in different high intensity zones are analyzed. At some positions, more pulses are received in the arrival structure of the signal due to bottom reflection and the horizontal-longitudinal correlation coefficient decreases accordingly.The multi-path arrival structure of receiving signal becomes more complex with increasing receiver depth.     

使用稀疏贝叶斯学习的水声多途信道盲估计

提出了一种使用稀疏贝叶斯学习(SBL)的多途信号盲解卷积方法对水声多途信道的信道脉冲响应(CIR)进行盲估计。该方法利用垂直阵和多频SBL获得宽带舰船声源在不同垂直到达角上的复数域多频点信号,取其相位对垂直阵接收信号匹配滤波,得到每条路径上的CIR,将多路径CIR相干叠加得到最终的多途CIR结果。仿真与海试数据处理结果表明,相比于原有的基于交替投影的多途信号盲解卷积方法,所提出方法有以下几个好处:(1)无需准确预估多途信号数目;(2)分离的多途信号的方位更准确且信号相位更可靠;(3)有效获取了舰船与阵列之间的CIR.并且将弱路径CIR的平均时间估计误差从4.7 ms缩小到1.0 ms.显著提高了弱路径CIR的时间估计精度。使用稀疏贝叶斯学习的多途信号盲解卷积方法能够有效提高多途环境下水声信道盲估计的性能。      

浅海中沉积层参数对多途到达时差反演声速剖面的影响

本文以简正波模型和声线模型为基础，通过计算机仿真，研究了浅海多途到达时延差结构与沉积层密度、声速、传播损失系数等参数的关系，针对100m左右浅海和600-1300Hz的信号频率，对两种模型仿真结果进行了比较，结果表明，声线模型仿真得到的多途到达时延差结构与简正波模型仿真的结果基本一致，沉积层参数失配对基于声线模型的多途到达时差反演SSP的影响为：反演声速剖面的均方根误差的变化小于1.45m/s，平均误差的变化小于2.60m/s，在所使用的频段内，浅海沉积层参数对多途到达时差反演浅海声速剖面的影响不大，工程应用中可以忽略不计。     

深海脉冲信号簇到达结构特征及其在水下声源定位中的应用_

为了实现对深海水下声源的定位,对典型深海环境中的脉冲信号到达结构特征进行了理论分析,给出了声源和接收位置位于近海面时到达信号的簇信号形式近似表达式.当声源和接收位置处于近海面深度时,接收到的信号呈簇状结构形式.在提取到达信号中各簇信号到达时间、幅值等特征参数的基础上,提出了一种通过对到达信号中簇信号特征参数匹配搜索进行...     

A particle filtering approach for spatial arrival time tracking in ocean acoustics

The focus of this work is on arrival time and amplitude estimation from acoustic signals recorded at spatially separated hydrophones in the ocean. A particle filtering approach is developed that treats arrival times as "targets" and tracks their "location" across receivers, also modeling arrival time gradient. The method is evaluated via Monte Carlo simulations and is compared to a maximum likelihood estimator, which does not relate arrivals at neighboring receivers. The comparison demonstrates a significant advantage in using the particle filter. It is also shown that posterior probability density functions of times and amplitudes become readily available with particle filtering.     

基于虚拟时间反转镜的短基线定位研究

海洋的多途效应是影响水声定位信号检测性能的主要因素。为了满足信号检测中的某种"最佳"准则,克服海洋水声信道的多途效应,本文基于信道的匹配滤波器-时间反转镜技术,提出虚拟时间反转结合匹配滤波器构造信号处理接收机的方法。通过计算机仿真和实验数据处理表明,经过基于虚拟时间反转处理的匹配滤波(TR-MF)接收机性能优于传统的匹配滤波(MF)接收机,并且将该技术应用在短基线水声定位系统中,提高了时延估计分辨力,改善了定位精度。     

Analysis of acoustic channels with a time-evolving sinusoidal surface

Sea-surface movement in the ocean induces a time-varying acoustic channel which affects underwater system including acoustic communication. For an investigation of surface movement effects on communication channel parameters (delay time, amplitude, etc.), acoustic transmission and reception experiments were conducted in the water tank. The delay time and amplitude of single surface bounce path from the measurement data show periodic time dependence, which is caused by a travelling periodic sinusoidal surface. A ray-based propagation model is applied to the experimental environment to estimate communication channel parameters. A comparison between measurement data and model result permit a physical interpretation of the communication channel parameters. The difference of single surface bounce path delay times from the model and measurement data are within small error bound. The delay times oscillate around the delay time of single surface bounce path when the surface is flat and show the periodic sine function. The amplitudes from the model are in agreement with those from the measurement data except at low amplitude region. Slight angle and frequency dependencies of source and receiver and noise in the water tank account for the disagreement in this region. Since the crest and trough of surface wave respectively make the acoustic energy emitted from the source converge and diverge, the amplitudes have high fluctuation and same phase with the delay time. The ray model is applied to an environment in the ocean. A striation pattern appears in surface reflected signal due to shadow zone on the surface.     

Ray chaos and ray clustering in an ocean waveguide

We consider ray propagation in a waveguide with a designed sound-speed profile perturbed by a range-dependent perturbation caused by internal waves in deep ocean environments. The Hamiltonian formalism in terms of the action and angle variables is applied to study nonlinear ray dynamics with two sound-channel models and three perturbation models: a single-mode perturbation, a randomlike sound-speed fluctuations, and a mixed perturbation. In the integrable limit without any perturbation, we derive analytical expressions for ray arrival times and timefronts at a given range, the main measurable characteristics in field experiments in the ocean. In the presence of a single-mode perturbation, ray chaos is shown to arise as a result of overlapping nonlinear ray-medium resonances. Poincare maps, plots of variations of the action per ray cycle length, and plots with rays escaping the channel reveal inhomogeneous structure of the underlying phase space with remarkable zones of stability where stable coherent ray clusters may be formed. We demonstrate the possibility of determining the wavelength of the perturbation mode from the arrival time distribution under conditions of ray chaos. It is surprising that coherent ray clusters, consisting of fans of rays which propagate over long ranges with close dynamical characteristics, can survive under a randomlike multiplicative perturbation modelling sound-speed fluctuations caused by a wide spectrum of internal waves.