An overview of seabed characterization experiment

Abstract

An overview of the Spring 2021 component of the Seabed Characterization Experiment will be presented. The project is focused on the acoustics of fine-grained ocean bottom sediments. The study site is the New England Shelf, south of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, USA. The goals of the project are (1) understand the physical mechanisms that control acoustic propagation in fine-grained sediments, (2) quantify uncertainties in the estimation of seabed parameters, (3) correlate the observed horizontal variations in the acoustical field with the measured horizontal variability of the seabed and (4) assess the performance of the resulting geoacoustic models, and inversion and statistical inference methods. These goals have been pursued by obtaining direct measurements and/or inferring the values of the following parameters over a wide frequency band: compressional wave speed and attenuation, shear wave speed and attenuation, and seabed layering and gradients. Oceanographic data were collected to support both forward and inverse modeling efforts. A major part of this effort was completed in 2017 and a follow-on effort is planned for 2021 and 2022. This presentation provides an overview of the project, a summary of past results, and a discussion of the most recent work. [Work supported by ONR.]