Long-range acoustic scattering from a shallow-water mud-volcano cluster

Analysis of reverberation measurements in the Straits of Sicily shows high intensity, discrete, scattered returns 10-20 dB above background reverberation. These returns are due to scattering from mud volcanoes. The reverberation from the mud volcanoes at ranges of 15-22 km is reasonably consistent over these spatial scales (i.e., kilometers) and temporal scales of several hours; measurements separated by 4 years are also similar. Statistical characterization indicates that the reverberation associated with a mud-volcano cluster is strongly non-Rayleigh and that the reverberation can be characterized by a single (shape) parameter, roughly independent of frequency. The non-Rayleigh statistics, with a concomitant increase in the probability of false alarm, indicate that mud volcanoes are a likely source of clutter. Mean target strengths were estimated at 1-11 dB over 160-1400 Hz and are consistent with target strengths measured during a different year at short (direct-path) ranges. Accumulated evidence points to small (order 10 m diameter and several meters high) carbonate chimneys on the mud-volcano edifice as the scattering mechanism as opposed to the edifice itself or scattering from gas bubbles in the water column. Thus, the results represent acoustic scattering from mud volcanoes in a quiescent state.     

Near-specular acoustic scattering from a buried submarine mud volcano

Submarine mud volcanoes are objects that form on the seafloor due to the emission of gas and fluidized sediment from the Earth's interior. They vary widely in size, can be exposed or buried, and are of interest to the underwater acoustics community as potential sources of active sonar clutter. Coincident seismic reflection data and low frequency bistatic scattering data were gathered from one such buried mud volcano located in the Straits of Sicily. The bistatic data were generated using a pulsed piston source and a 64-element horizontal array, both towed over the top of the volcano. The purpose of this work was to appropriately model low frequency scattering from the volcano using the bistatic returns, seismic bathymetry, and knowledge of the general geoacoustic properties of the area's seabed to guide understanding and model development. Ray theory, with some approximations, was used to model acoustic propagation through overlying layers. Due to the volcano's size, scattering was modeled using geometric acoustics and a simple representation of volcano shape. Modeled bistatic data compared relatively well with experimental data, although some features remain unexplained. Results of an inversion for the volcano's reflection coefficient indicate that it may be acoustically softer than expected.     

Backscatter from a limestone seafloor at 2-3.5 kHz: measurements and modeling

Physics-based interface scattering models for the seafloor [H.-H. Essen, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 95, 1299-1310 (1994); Gragg et al., ibid. 110, 2878-2901 (2001)] exhibit features in their predicted grazing angle dependence. These features have a strong dependence on the assumed composition and roughness of the bottom. Verifying such predictions requires data that cover a wide range of grazing angles and involve minimal sub-bottom penetration. Such measurements were performed in the frequency band 2-3.5 kHz over an exposed limestone bottom off the Carolina coast during the second Littoral Warfare Advanced Development Focused Technology Experiment of 1996 (LWAD FTE 96-2). Direct-path bottom scattering strengths were obtained in shallow water (198-310 m deep) for grazing angles from 8 degrees to 75 degrees using data fusion from multiple experimental geometries coupled with careful signal processing. The processing included corrections for the surface-reflected path, other multipaths, and characteristics of the reverberation decay observed over the pulse duration at higher grazing angles. The resulting frequency and grazing-angle dependences exhibit trends consistent with theoretical predictions, and geoacoustic parameters obtained by inversion are consistent with values expected for limestone.     

鳀鱼(Engraulis japonicus)目标强度的模型法研究

采用声散射理论和目标强度近似模型评估法对黄海鲤鱼（Engraulis japonicus）的声散射特征和目标强度进行了数值计算与评估研究。散射模型由鱼鳔模型和鱼体模型两个部分构成，其中鱼鳔采用充满气体的椭球体模型，鳔除外的鱼体采用充满液体的椭球体模型。理论数值计算所需参数取自全长12．6cm的鲤鱼个体，其鱼鳔尺寸利用X光照片测得。平均目标强度利用模型算得的不同角度下的声散射强度与鲲鱼倾角分布函数的卷积计算，其中倾角（度）的分布函数设为N（-3．9，12．8^2）。结果显示，鲲鱼对声波的散射具有明显指向性；在38kHz和120kHz工作频率下，鲲鱼的最大背向目标强度分别为-41．2dB和-39．5dB，有效平均目标强度分别为-48．0dB和-51．5dB，与实测结果吻合较好。另外还对鲲鱼的反向散射指向性特征、目标强度的频率特征以及鱼鳔对鲲鱼整体目标强度的贡献等进行了分析与讨论。以上研究表明，模型法作为现场测定研究方法的重要补充和认知鱼类声学散射特性的有效途径，可在我国鱼类目标强度的研究中发挥重要作用。     

Physical model of acoustic forward scattering by cylindrical shell and its experimental validation

Research on the underwater target scattering can provide important theoretical support for target detection. The scattering model of cylindrical shell is established in this paper. It is found that the forward target strength is much stronger and varies with angles of incident wave less significantly than backward target strength. The received forward signal strength fluctuates with the target moving due to the interference between direct signal and scattering signal, which is most significant when target approaches the baseline. An experiment is carried out in an anechoic tank to validate the scattering model. The method of acquisiting forward scattering in the tank is proposed. The forward and the backward target strengths are achieved by using the pulse compression technology, and they are about 3dB less than the modeling results. The forward scattering phenomena of quiescent and moving target are measured, which are similar to modeling results with different target types.     

Behaviour of scattering from a rough surface at small grazing angles

The particular problem of wave scattering at low grazing angles is of great interest because of its importance for the long-distance propagation of radio waves along the Earth's surface, radar observation of near surface objects, as well as solving many other fundamental and applied problems of remote sensing. One of the main questions is: how do the scattering amplitude and specific cross section behave for extremely small grazing angles? We consider the process of wave scattering by a statistically rough surface with the Neumann boundary condition. This model corresponds to sound scattering from a perfectly 'hard' surface (for example, the interface between air and the sea surface) or 'vertically' polarized electromagnetic waves scattered by a perfectly conducting one-dimensional (i.e. cylindrical) surface when the magnetic field vector is directed along the generating line of this cylindrical surface. We assume that the surface roughness is sufficiently small (in the sense of the Rayleigh parameter) and the surface is rigorously statistically homogeneous and therefore, infinite. We confine ourselves only to the first-order approximation of small perturbation theory and therefore consider every act of wave scattering in the Born approximation when the Bragg scattering process takes place. Only one resonant Fourier component of surface roughness is responsible for the scattering in a given direction. However, we take into account the attenuation of incident and scattered waves due to the multiple scattering processes on the path 'before' and 'after' a scattering event in a given direction. Also we consider every one of these multiple scattering events only in the Born approximation. The main result we have obtained is that for small grazing angles the scattering cross section of the diffuse component decreases as the second power of the grazing angles with respect to the incident and scattered directions, and as the fourth power of the grazing angle for the backscattering (radar) situation. Generalizing our results from plane-wave scattering to finite beams allows us to obtain the criterion on the beamwidth. For sufficiently narrow beams the multiple scattering processes do not play any role because of a short 'interaction path', and only single Bragg scattering determines the scattering amplitude (which does not tend to zero for small grazing angles). However, for sufficiently wide beams the result obtained for infinite plane waves becomes valid: due to the above-mentioned multiple scattering processes, the scattering amplitude tends to zero for small grazing angles. Consequently, the behaviour of the scattering cross section for small grazing angles depends on the radiation pattern width of the transmitting and receiving antennae: for sufficiently wide beams the scattering cross section decreases to zero at small grazing angles, but for narrow beams it tends to the finite non-zero value.     

Acoustic backscatter measurements from littoral seabeds at shallow grazing angles at 4 and 8 kHz

Direct measurement of acoustic scattering from the seabed at shallow grazing angles and low kilohertz frequencies presents a considerable challenge in littoral waters. Specifically, returns from the air-water interface typically contaminate the signals of interest. To address this issue, DRDC Atlantic has developed a sea-going research system for measuring acoustic scatter from the seabed in shallow-water environs. The system, known as the wideband sonar (WBS), consists of a parametric array transmitter and a superdirective receiver. In this paper, backscatter measurements obtained with the WBS at two sandy, shallow-water sites off North America's Atlantic coast are presented. Data were collected at 4 and 8 kHz at grazing angles from 3 degrees-15 degrees. The backscattering strength is similar at both sites and, below about 8 degrees, it appears to be independent of frequency within the statistical accuracy of the data. The measurements show reasonable agreement with model estimates of backscatter from sandy sediments. A small data set was collected at one of the sites to examine the feasibility of using the WBS to measure the azimuthal variability of acoustic scatter. The data set--although limited--indicates that the parametric array's narrow beamwidth makes the system well-suited to this task.     

An attempt to determine the tritium, Na, Cl and radon in territory of mud volcano in Taman

Little is known about the radio-isotopic geochemistry of mud volcanoes in the Taman area, Krasnodar region, in the tectonic active zone of the Caucasus range. In 1998, we have started the determination of radon in soil air using solid state nuclear track detectors on a monthly basis. Tritium was determined out of water sampled at the mud volcano vents by means of both mass spectrometry and liquid scintillation. ²²Na, ³⁶Cl were also determined by means of a low background gamma spectrometer placed at a depth of 50 m in our underground laboratory. It was found that mud volcano fluids are of partial deep origin.     

Acoustic backscattering by Hawaiian lutjanid snappers. 1. Target strength and swimbladder characteristics

The target strengths and swimbladder morphology of six snapper species were investigated using broadband sonar, x rays, and swimbladder casts. Backscatter data were obtained using a frequency-modulated sweep (60-200 kHz) and a broadband, dolphinlike click (peak frequency 120 kHz) from live fish, mounted and rotated around each of their three axes. X rays revealed species-specific differences in the shape, size, and orientation of the swimbladders. The angle between the fish's dorsal aspect and the major axis of its swimbladder ranged from 3 degrees to 12 degrees and was consistent between individuals within a species. This angle had a one-to-one relationship with the angle at which the maximum dorsal aspect target strength was measured (r2 = 0.93), regardless of species. Maximum dorsal aspect target strength was correlated with length within species. However, the swimbladder modeled as an air-filled prolate spheroid with axes measured from the x rays of the swimbladder predicted maximum target strength significantly better than models based on fish length or swimbladder volume. For both the dorsal and lateral aspects, the prolate spheroid model's predictions were not significantly different from the measured target strengths (observed power >0.75) and were within 3 dB of the measured values. This model predicts the target strengths of all species equally well, unlike those based on length.     

A practical cross-section for scattering from rough surfaces at very low grazing angles in both the forward and backward directions

In this paper we develop an extension of the small slope approximation (SSA) for scattering from randomly rough Dirichlet surfaces, which includes some multiple scattering. This extension is designated by SSA+. We focus on scattering at very low grazing angles where multiple scattering of both the incident and scattered fields is of importance. Numerical results for the SSA+ bistatic scattering cross-section for very low forward grazing angles are presented using the Gaussian roughness spectrum and for both very low forward and very low backward grazing angles using the Pierson–Moskowitz and modified power law spectra. The results are restricted to an angle of incidence of 80°. It is shown that when the lowest-order SSA gives reasonably accurate results, the SSA+ increases the accuracy up to at least the final 0.2° of grazing in the forward direction. In the backward direction, the SSA+ gives good results for the Pierson–Moskowitz spectrum, but the results are less dramatic.     

Exhalation of radon and its carrier gases in SW Taiwan

Gas compositions of mud volcanoes reveal multiple sources for gas exhalation in SW Taiwan. For comparison, two sites, Yan-chao (YC) and Chung-lun (CL), were chosen for measurements of soil Rn concentrations using a portable radon detector. The ²²²Rn concentrations at the YC site were ca. 5200 Bq/m³. However, the average ²²²Rn concentrations at the CL site exhibited higher value of ca. 16,800 Bq/m³. With the reference of the gas flux and compositions from the nearby mud pool, the soil ²²²Rn concentrations are largely controlled by the flux of carrier gases exhaled from deep reservoirs.     

Low frequency seabed scattering at low grazing angles

Low-frequency (LF) seabed scattering at low grazing angles (LGA) is almost impossible to directly measure in shallow water (SW), except through inversion from reverberation. The energy flux method for SW reverberation is briefly introduced in this paper. The closed-form expressions of reverberation in an isovelocity waveguide, derived from this method, indicate that in the three-halves law range interval multimode/ray sea bottom scattering with different incident and scattering angles in forming the reverberation may equivalently be represented by the bottom backscattering at a single range-dependent angle. This equivalent relationship is used to derive the bottom backscattering strength (BBS) as a function of angle and frequency. The LF&LGA BBS is derived in a frequency band of 200-2500 Hz and in a grazing angle range of 1.1°-14.0° from reverberation measurements at three sites with sandy bottoms. This is based on three previous works: (1) The closed-form expressions of SW reverberation [Zhou, (Chinese) Acta Acustica 5, 86-99 (1980)]; (2) the effective geo-acoustic model of sandy bottoms that follows the Biot model [Zhou et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125, 2847-2866 (2009)] and (3) A quality database of wideband reverberation level normalized to source level [Zhou and Zhang, IEEE J. Oceanic Eng. 30, 832-842 (2005)].     

A time domain rough surface scattering model based on wedge diffraction: application to low-frequency backscattering from two-dimensional sea surfaces

A time domain method for calculating the acoustic impulse response of impenetrable, rough, two-dimensional (2D) surfaces is presented. The method is based on an extension of the wedge assemblage (WA) method to 2D surfaces and objects. Like the WA method for one-dimensional (1D) surfaces, the approach for 2D surfaces uses Biot's and Tolstoy's exact solution for the impulse response of an infinite impenetrable wedge [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 29, 381-391 (1957)] as its fundamental building block. The validity of the WA method for backscattering from 2D sea surfaces is assessed through comparisons with calculations based on Milder's operator expansion (OE) method [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 89, 529-541 (1991)]. Average intensities for backscattering from 2D fully developed seas (20 m/s wind speed) were computed by the WA and OE methods using 50 surface realizations and compared at 11 frequencies between 100 and 200 Hz. A single, moderately low grazing angle of incidence (20 degrees) and several scattered grazing angles (90 degrees, 45 degrees, 20 degrees , and 10 ) were considered. Excellent overall agreement between the two models was obtained. The utility of the WA method as a tool to describe the physics of the scattering process is also discussed.     

Angularly resolved light scattering from aerosolized spores: observations and calculations

Angularly resolved elastic light scattering patterns from individual aerosolized Bacillus subtilis spores were qualitatively compared with simulations. Two-dimensional angular optical scattering patterns of the spores were collected for polar scattering angles varying from approximately 77 degrees to 130 degrees and azimuthal angles varying from 0 degrees to 360 degrees . Computations were performed with single T-matrix formalism by simulating a spore with three different particle shapes: (1) a finite-length cylinder with spherical end caps, (2) a spheroid, and (3) two spheres in contact. Excellent agreement between computation and measurement was found for the finite-length cylinder with spherical end caps, poorer agreement was found for the spheroids, and the poorest agreement was for the two spheres in contact.     

Broadband acoustic scattering measurements of underwater unexploded ordnance (UXO)

In order to evaluate the potential for detection and identification of underwater unexploded ordnance (UXO) by exploiting their structural acoustic response, we carried out broadband monostatic scattering measurements over a full 360 degrees on UXO's (two mortar rounds, an artillery shell, and a rocket warhead) and false targets (a cinder block and a large rock). The measurement band, 1-140 kHz, includes a low frequency structural acoustics region in which the wavelengths are comparable to or larger than the target characteristic dimensions. In general, there are aspects that provide relatively high target strength levels ( approximately -10 to -15 dB), and from our experience the targets should be detectable in this structural acoustics band in most acoustic environments. The rigid body scattering was also calculated for one UXO in order to highlight the measured scattering features involving elastic responses. The broadband scattering data should be able to support feature-based separation of UXO versus false targets and identification of various classes of UXO as well.     

Measurement of spin-correlation parameters ANN,ASS, and ASL at 2.1 GeV in proton-proton elastic scattering

At the Cooler Synchrotron COSY/Jülich spin-correlation parameters in elastic proton-proton (pp) scattering have been measured with a 2.11 GeV polarized proton beam and a polarized hydrogen atomic beam target. We report results for A(NN), A(SS), and A(SL) for c.m. scattering angles between 30 degrees and 90 degrees. Our data on A(SS)--the first measurement of this observable above 800 MeV--clearly disagrees with predictions of available pp scattering phase-shift solutions while A(NN) and A(SL) are reproduced reasonably well. We show that in the direct reconstruction of the scattering amplitudes from the body of available pp elastic scattering data at 2.1 GeV the number of possible solutions is considerably reduced.     

The SSA+ for scattering from dielectric surfaces at very low grazing angles

Previously we developed a practical model for scattering from randomly-rough surfaces at very low grazing angles for the Dirichlet problem which was found to give good numerical results. In this paper, we derive the expression for the bistatic scattering cross-section for the non-local small slope approximation for dielectric interfaces. We then extend our practical model to dielectric surfaces based on this result. We discuss numerical results for scattering at low forward grazing angles for a Gaussian roughness spectrum with an angle of incidence of 80^○.     

Modeling signal loss in surficial marine sediments containing occluded gas

The presence of occluded gas in inland lakes, harbor muds, and surficial marine sediments is well documented. Surficial gassy sediments cause underlying beds to be acoustically impenetrable to seismic surveys; therefore, the modeling of signal loss arising from mudline reflection and transmission absorption is of particular interest. The Anderson and Hampton [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 67, 1890-1903 (1980)] model for attenuation in gassy sediments was evaluated against the physical and acoustical properties of eight laboratory silty clay soils containing different amounts of occluded gas in bubbles of 0.2- to 1.8-mm diameter. The model was shown to give good agreement with measured data over the lower frequencies of bubble resonance and above resonance. It did not agree with measured data at frequencies below resonance, for which the model did not simulate the bulk properties of the gassy soils. The Mackenzie [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 32, 221-231 (1960)] model for reflection loss was also examined for the gassy soils. The maximum reflection losses of 6 dB, at a grazing angle of 40 degrees, does not wholly support speculation by Levin [Geophysics 27, 35-47 (1962)] of highly reflective pressure-release boundaries arising from substantial reflection and absorption losses in gassy sediments. It was found that mudlines formed from sediments with significant occluded gas may be successfully penetrated, although the substantial absorption loss arising from signal transmission through the sediment prevents penetration of the surficial layers to much beyond a meter in depth.     

Subcritical penetration of acoustic waves into inhomogenous seafloors

A generalized model is applied to estimate the incoherent penetration ratio caused by volume scattering at grazing angles below the critical grazing angle. The factors that affect volume scattering have been discussed using experimental data in literature. A two-layered model that refers to sound scattering in two-layered media is used to evaluate the incoherent penetration ratio for most typical sediments. But for special cases, such as the experiment, SAX04, a three-layered model is necessary to describe scattering features especially for grazing angles θ<30°. It is shown that subcritical penetration is enhanced when the scale of volume fluctuations is comparable with the acoustic wavelength, and the scattered waves into the seafloor dominate over evanescent waves at depths larger than a few wavelengths.