3D Gaussian ray bundling to improve the speed and accuracy of transmission loss eigenrays and multi-static reverberation, in littoral environments

Abstract

The wavefront queue 3D (WaveQ3D) model is a research effort to create fast and accurate acoustic transmission loss eigenrays and multi-static reverberation, in littoral environments, for real-time sonar simulation/stimulation systems that require simultaneous updates from hundreds of acoustic contacts. WaveQ3D is a Gaussian ray bundling model that improves computation speed of rapidly evolving scenarios by computing propagation results on a spherical earth. We will show that the added complexity of the spherical coordinate system has almost no impact on execution speed, and how it avoids the laborious task of transforming the 3D oceanographic data into Nx2D radials. WaveQ3D improves the accuracy of transmission loss and reverberation calculations in littoral environments by including 3D effects, such as horizontal refraction from the ocean bottom. This talk will focus on the design decisions that made during model development and their impact on the utility of WaveQ3D for a few different applications.