Ed Sullivan and model-based ocean acoustic signal processing

Abstract

Ed Sullivan was a pioneer in model-based signal processing and his contributions have inspired numerous scientists in the fields of acoustic signal processing and ocean acoustics. Work by Ed and his colleagues is among the first efforts to formulate ocean acoustic inverse problems in a sequential filtering framework; methods were developed that overcome the destructive role of mismatch between assumed and true physics in inverse problems. In paper “Model-based ocean acoustic signal processing,” Acoustics Today, July 2011, Ed Sullivan identifies three main directions in signal processing, detection, classification, and estimation; he focuses on estimation and presents a study of model-based methods for inverse problems and how those methods can be successfully applied to the field of ocean acoustics. This presentation reviews these applications and discusses the impact of Ed Sullivan’s contributions on other advances in ocean acoustic signal processing.