Sequential trans-dimensional Monte Carlo for range-dependent geoacoustic inversion

This paper develops a sequential trans-dimensional Monte Carlo algorithm for geoacoustic inversion in a strongly range-dependent environment. The algorithm applies advanced Markov chain Monte Carlo methods in combination with sequential techniques (particle filters) to carry out geoacoustic inversions for consecutive data sets acquired along a track. Changes in model parametrization along the track (e.g., number of sediment layers) are accounted for with trans-dimensional partition modeling, which intrinsically determines the amount of structure supported by the data information content. Challenging issues of rapid environmental change between consecutive data sets and high information content (peaked likelihood) are addressed by bridging distributions implemented using annealed importance sampling. This provides an efficient method to locate high-likelihood regions for new data which are distant and ∕ or disjoint from previous high-likelihood regions. The algorithm is applied to simulated reflection-coefficient data along a track, such as can be collected using a towed array close to the seabed. The simulated environment varies rapidly along the track, with changes in the number of layers, layer thicknesses, and geoacoustic parameters within layers. In addition, the seabed contains a geologic fault, where all layers are offset abruptly, and an erosional channel. Changes in noise level are also considered.     

The effects of ignored seabed variability in geoacoustic inversion

Geoacoustic inversion using a matched-field inversion algorithm is a well-established technique for estimating the geoacoustic parameters of the seabed. This paper demonstrates how parameter estimation can be affected by unknown or wishfully ignored random range dependence of the true environment when the inversion model is--for practicality--assumed to be range independent. Simulations with controlled statistics were carried out using a simple shallow water model: an isospeed water column over a homogeneous elastic halfspace. The inversion parameters included water depth, compressional speed in the seabed, seabed density, and compressional wave attenuation. On average the environment is range independent: some parameters are constant while other parameters are random with range-independent means and variances. A Parabolic Equation underwater acoustic propagation model is used to calculate the simulated data fields for the range-dependent environment as well as to calculate the model fields for the range-independent inversion model. The Adaptive Simplex Simulated Annealing inversion algorithm is used to estimate the best-fit solution. It is found that ignoring the variability of even a single geoacoustic parameter leads to significant and correlated uncertainty (bias and variance) in the estimation of all inverted parameters. Results are presented for range variation of compressional sound speed and water depth.     

Range-dependent seabed characterization by inversion of acoustic data from a towed receiver array

The MAPEX2000 experiments were conducted in the Mediterranean Sea in March, 2000 to determine seabed properties using a towed acoustic source and receiver array. Towed systems are advantageous because they are easy to deploy from a ship and the moving platform offers the possibility for estimating spatially variable (range-dependent) seabed properties. In this paper, seabed parameters are determined using a matched-field geoacoustic inversion approach with measured, towed array data. Previous research has successfully applied matched-field geoacoustic inversion techniques to measured acoustic data. However, in nearly all cases the inverted data were collected on moored, vertical receiver arrays. Results here show that seabed parameters can also be extracted by inverting acoustic measurements from a towed array of receivers, and these agree with those inverted using data received simultaneously on a vertical array. These findings imply that a practical technique could be developed to map range-dependent seabed parameters over large areas using a towed acoustic system. An example of such a range-dependent inversion is given using measurements from the MAPEX2000 experiments.     

Bayesian geoacoustic inversion using wind-driven ambient noise

This paper applies Bayesian inversion to bottom-loss data derived from wind-driven ambient noise measurements from a vertical line array to quantify the information content constraining seabed geoacoustic parameters. The inversion utilizes a previously proposed ray-based representation of the ambient noise field as a forward model for fast computations of bottom loss data for a layered seabed. This model considers the effect of the array's finite aperture in the estimation of bottom loss and is extended to include the wind speed as the driving mechanism for the ambient noise field. The strength of this field relative to other unwanted noise mechanisms defines a signal-to-noise ratio, which is included in the inversion as a frequency-dependent parameter. The wind speed is found to have a strong impact on the resolution of seabed geoacoustic parameters as quantified by marginal probability distributions from Bayesian inversion of simulated data. The inversion method is also applied to experimental data collected at a moored vertical array during the MAPEX 2000 experiment, and the results are compared to those from previous active-source inversions and to core measurements at a nearby site.     

Geoacoustic inversion for bottom parameters in a thermocline environment in the northern area of the South China Sea

Bottom acoustic parameters have important influence on the application of underwater acoustic propagation and source location.The acoustic parameters of the seabed in the northern of the South China Sea(SCS) were inversed using the experiment data from an acoustic experiment in 2015.Based on the comprehensive analysis of the influence of the sound speed fluctuation and the geoacoustic model on seabed inversion,the multi-parameter hybrid acoustic inversion scheme is improved by selecting the equi...     

基于等效密度流体模型的地声参数分析

目前的地声参数反演多采用液态海底模型,但是实际海底为多孔弹性海底。该文在等效密度流体模型基础上,通过计算液态海底和多孔弹性海底的反射系数及传播损失,给出了等效密度流体模型和液态海底模型的等效性分析。数值仿真结果表明在低频情况下,多孔弹性海底给出的快纵波声速与等效密度流体模型给出的声速以及等效密度流体的实部与真实的海底密度基本一致。将等效密度流体模型近似看作液态海底模型进行反射系数和传播损失计算,在小掠射角和远距离时,计算结果表明与多孔弹性海底计算结果具有较好一致性,从而以此为依据确定海底为液态,进行地声参数反演。     

舰船辐射噪声贝叶斯方法反演浅海底层结构及地声参数EI北大核心CSCD

针对以舰船辐射噪声为参考声源的浅海海底分层结构及地声参数反演问题,研究了一种基于贝叶斯理论的浅海多层海底地声参数反演方法。反演中以舰船辐射噪声的线谱成分为研究对象,进而采用非线性贝叶斯反演方法反演浅海底层结构、层中声速、声速衰减和密度,并对反演结果的不确定性进行分析。反演结果的最大后验概率估计值和边缘概率分布分别通过拨正模拟退火算法和Metropolis-Hastings采样法在各参数先验区间内计算获得,并根据贝叶斯信息准则确定最佳海底分层结构。海上实验表明:根据该方法反演获得海底分层结构及地声参数,计算得到的声压场与实测舰船辐射噪声传播损失误差不超过10%,反演结果能够准确表征实验海区海底特征。反演结果不确定性分析表明:海底纵波声速、横波声速以及密度的不确定性更小,对声压场变化更加敏感,反演结果更有效、准确。     

射线理论下的浅海环境噪声场空间相干性分析及海底声学参数反演

基于射线理论,以简化海底模型为基础,获得了浅海噪声场空间相干性在频域上的表示方法,并用于海底声学参数反演。将风关海洋噪声看作分布在无限大平面上的点源,通过计算噪声场垂直方向上的能量分布,进一步获得空间两点噪声场频域相干性表达式。利用数值仿真验证了模型对于不同海底类型的敏感性。并结合噪声场空间两点的频域相干性海上实验数据,反演得到该处海域的底质类型,进一步获得海底声速、密度和声衰减系数。结果表明,反演得到的海底参数与实际情况符合较好,文中提出采用的这种计算方法能够有效的反映海底反射对于噪声场空间相干性的影响,并且可在一定程度上提高反演海底声学参数效率。      

Broadband sound propagation in shallow water and geoacoustic inversion

Part of an experiment to test a measurement package in a shallow water region in the Gulf of Mexico was designed to gather broadband acoustic data suitable for inversion to estimate seabed geoacoustic parameters. Continuous wave tow acoustic signals at multiple frequencies and broadband impulsive source signals were recorded on a horizontal line array in a high-noise environment. Simulated annealing with a normal mode forward propagation model is utilized to invert for a geoacoustic representation of the seabed. Several inversions are made from different data samples of two light bulb implosions, the measured sound speed profiles at the HLA and at the positions of the light bulb deployments, and for two different cost functions. The different cost functions, measured sound speed profiles, and measured time series result in different inverted geoacoustic profiles from which transmission loss is generated for comparison with measurements. On the basis of physical consistency and from the comparison of the transmission loss and time series, a best estimate geoacoustic profile is selected and compared to those obtained from previously reported inversions. Uncertainties in the sound speed profile are shown to affect the uncertainties of the estimated seabed parameters.     

利用拖船自噪声进行浅海环境参数贝叶斯反演

研究了以拖船自噪声为参考声源的浅海环境参数反演问题,并针对反演结果不确定性快速量化评估问题,提出了一种基于自适应重要性抽样的贝叶斯反演新方法。反演利用了拖船自噪声低频线谱成分,并采用混合高斯推荐函数自适应推荐声场模型样本,使得样本集中于参数高概率密度区域,实现后验概率密度快速收敛计算。仿真试验结果表明:拖船自噪声反演能够准确估计水深、沉积层及阵列参数等。所提自适应重要性抽样贝叶斯反演方法的计算效率优于快速吉布斯抽样方法。利用试验数据处理验证,反演得到试验海域声学环境参数,计算传播损失与各阵元接收线谱强度变化吻合,说明反演最优环境模型能准确表征声场传播特征。      

Effects of incoherent and coherent source spectral information in geoacoustic inversion

This paper examines the effect on matched-field geoacoustic inversion of including source spectral information, as can be available in controlled-source acoustic surveys. Source information can consist of relative or absolute knowledge of the source amplitude and/or phase spectra, and can allow frequency-coherent processing of spatial acoustic-field data. A number of multi-frequency acoustic processors, appropriate for specific types of source information, are defined based on the likelihood function for complex acoustic-field data with Gaussian noise. The information content of the various processors is quantified in terms of marginal probability distributions and highest-probability density intervals for the unknown geoacoustic and geometric parameters, which define the accuracy expected in inversion. Marginal distributions are estimated using a fast Gibbs sampler approach to Bayesian inversion, which provides an efficient, unbiased sampling of the multi-dimensional posterior probability density. The analysis is illustrated for incoherent and coherent processors corresponding to several types of source knowledge ranging from complete information to no information, and the results are considered as a function of the spatial and frequency sampling of the acoustic fields.     

The impact of water column variability on horizontal wave number estimation and mode based geoacoustic inversion results

The influence of water column variability on low-frequency, shallow water geoacoustic inversion results is considered. The data are estimates of modal eigenvalues obtained from measurements of a point source acoustic field using a horizontal aperture array in the water column. The inversion algorithm is based on perturbations to a background waveguide model with seabed properties consistent with the measured eigenvalues. Water column properties in the background model are assumed to be known, as would be obtained from conductivity, temperature, and depth measurements. The scope of this work in addressing the impact of water column variability on inversion is twofold. Range-dependent propagation effects as they pertain to eigenvalue estimation are first considered. It is shown that mode coupling is important even for weak internal waves and can enhance modal eigenvalue estimates. Second, the effect of the choice of background sound speed profile in the water column is considered for its impact on the estimated bottom acoustic properties. It is shown that a range-averaged sound velocity profile yields the best geoacoustic parameter estimates.     

地声参数及传播损失不确定性估计与建模

地声参数的不确定性对水声传播具有重要的影响。通过贝叶斯理论建立水声环境不确定性推理模型,理论推导了地声参数的似然函数以及地声参数和传播损失的后验概率密度,并采用MCMC(Markov Chain Monte Carlo)进行了仿真计算,给出了地声参数的二维后验联合概率密度和一维边缘概率密度,在此基础上对传播损失的不确定性进行了估计,得到了传播损失80%的可信区间。仿真和实验结果表明,该方法适用于地声参数反演和不确定性估计,并能获取因地声参数不确定性导致的传播损失不确定性估计。     

Full wave-field reflection coefficient inversion

This paper develops a Bayesian inversion for recovering multilayer geoacoustic (velocity, density, attenuation) profiles from a full wave-field (spherical-wave) seabed reflection response. The reflection data originate from acoustic time series windowed for a single bottom interaction, which are processed to yield reflection coefficient data as a function of frequency and angle. Replica data for inversion are computed using a wave number-integration model to calculate the full complex acoustic pressure field, which is processed to produce a commensurate seabed response function. To address the high computational cost of calculating short range acoustic fields, the inversion algorithms are parallelized and frequency averaging is replaced by range averaging in the forward model. The posterior probability density is interpreted in terms of optimal parameter estimates, marginal distributions, and credibility intervals. Inversion results for the full wave-field seabed response are compared to those obtained using plane-wave reflection coefficients. A realistic synthetic study indicates that the plane-wave assumption can fail, producing erroneous results with misleading uncertainty bounds, whereas excellent results are obtained with the full-wave reflection inversion.     

Geoacoustic inversion of ambient noise: a simple method

The vertical directionality of ambient noise is strongly influenced by seabed reflections. Therefore, potentially, geoacoustic parameters can be inferred by inversion of the noise. In this approach, using vertical array measurements, the reflection loss is found directly by comparing the upward- with the downward-going noise. Theory suggests that this simple ratio is, in fact, the power reflection coefficient-potentially a function of angle and frequency. Modeling and parameter searching are minimized, and the method does not require a detailed knowledge of the noise source distribution. The approach can handle stratified environments and is believed to tolerate range dependence. Experimental data from five sites, four in the Mediterranean, one on the New Jersey Shelf, are described. Most of the Mediterranean sites had temporally varying noise directionality, yet yielded the same reflection properties, as one would hope. One site was visited in conditions of very low surface noise. This paper concentrates on an experimental demonstration of the feasibility of the method and data quality issues rather than automatic search techniques for geoacoustic parameters.     

Optimized constraints for the linearized geoacoustic inverse problem

A geoacoustic inversion scheme to estimate the depth-dependent sound speed characteristics of the shallow-water waveguide is presented. The approach is based on the linearized perturbative technique developed by Rajan et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 82, 998-1017 (1987)]. This method is applied by assuming a background starting model for the environment that includes both the water column and the seabed. Typically, the water column properties are assumed to be known and held fixed in the inversion. Successful application of the perturbative inverse technique lies in handling issues of stability and uniqueness associated with solving a discrete ill-posed problem. Conventionally, such problems are regularized, a procedure which results in a smooth solution. Past applications of this inverse technique have been restricted to cases for which the water column sound speed profile was known and sound speed in the seabed could be approximated by a smooth profile. In this work, constraints that are better suited to specific aspects of the geoacoustic inverse problem are applied. These techniques expand on the original application of the perturbative inverse technique by including the water column sound speed profile in the solution and by allowing for discontinuities in the seabed sound speed profile.     

Tabu for matched-field source localization and geoacoustic inversion

Tabu is a global optimization technique that has been very successful in operations research. In this paper, a Tabu-based method is developed for source localization and geoacoustic inversion with underwater sound data; the method relies on memory to guide the multiparameter search. Tabu is evaluated through a comparison to simulating annealing. Both methods are tested by inverting synthetic data for various numbers of unknown parameters. Tabu is found to be superior to the simulated annealing variant implemented here in terms both of accuracy and efficiency. Inversion results from the SWellEX-96 data set are also presented.     

Geoacoustic inversion based on reflection model of effective density fluid approximation

In order to obtain the physical and geoacoustic properties of marine sediments,an inverse method using reflection loss of different grazing angles is presented.The reflection loss is calculated according to the reflection model of effective density fluid approximation.A two-step hybrid optimization algorithm combining differential evolution and particle swarm optimization along with Bayesian inversion is employed in estimation of porosity,mean grain size,mass density and bulk modulus of grains.Based on the above physical parameters,geoacoustic parameters,including sound speed and attenuation,are further calculated.According to the numerical simulations,we can draw a conclusion that all the parameters can be well estimated with the exception of bulk modulus of grains.In particular,this indirect inverse method for bottom geoacoustic parameters performs high accuracy and strong robustness.The relative errors are 0.092%and 17%,respectively.Finally,measured reflection loss data of sandy sediments at the bottom of a water tank is analyzed,and the estimation value,uncertainty and correlation of each parameter are presented.The availability of this inverse method is verified through comparison between inverse results and part of measured parameters.     

基于等效密度流体近似反射模型反演海底参数

为了获取海底沉积物的物理和地声特性,根据等效密度流体近似反射模型得到的不同掠射角下的海底反射损失,利用差分进化算法和粒子群算法相结合的两级混合优化算法以及Bayesian反演方法对海底沉积物的孔隙度、平均颗粒粒度、颗粒质量密度以及颗粒体积弹性模量进行反演,再根据这4个物理参数的估计值进一步计算出海底地声参数,包括声速和衰减。通过反演结果与仿真真值的比较可以看出,除颗粒体积弹性模量外,得到的估计结果是令人满意的,特别是这种间接反演海底地声参数的方法对地声参数的估计具有较高的精确性和较强的稳健性,相对误差分别为0.092%和17%。最后,对实验室水池池底沙质沉积物的反射损失数据进行处理,给出了沙质沉积物各参数的估计值、不确定性和相关性,并通过反演结果与部分实测参数值的比较验证了反演方法的可行性。      

Quantifying the uncertainty of geoacoustic parameter estimates for the New Jersey shelf by inverting air gun data

This paper describes geoacoustic inversion of low frequency air gun data acquired during an experiment on the New Jersey shelf. Hybrid optimization and Bayesian inversion techniques based on matched field processing were applied to multiple shots from three air gun data sets recorded by a vertical line array in a long-range shallow water geometry. For the Bayesian inversions, full data error covariance matrix was estimated from a set of consecutive shots that had high temporal coherence and small spatial variation in source position. The effect of different data error information on the geoacoustic parameter uncertainty estimates was investigated by using the full data error covariance matrix, a diagonalized version of the full error covariance, and a diagonal matrix with identical variances. The comparison demonstrated that inversion using the full data error information provided the most reliable parameter uncertainty estimates. The inversions were highly sensitive to the near sea floor geoacoustic parameters, including sediment attenuation, of a simple single-layer geoacoustic model. The estimated parameter values of the model were consistent with depth averaged values (over wavelength scales) of a high resolution geoacoustic model developed from extensive ground truth information. The interpretation of the frequency dependence of the estimated attenuation is also discussed.