Low signal-to-noise ratio localization exploiting through-the-sensor in situ environmental information

Abstract

Drifting sensors/arrays typically may not have detailed information of the environment. A combination of modal-MUSIC [JASA Exp. Lett. 2(7), 074802 (2022) ] and synthetic aperture matched field processing [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 150(1), 270–289 (2021)] provides a method to localize a weak source in a shallow water environment without a priori knowledge of the bottom geoacoustic parameters. The success of the method hinges on its ability to extract the bottom geoacoustic information from noise. The technique is relevant for low-frequency (<500 Hz) localization with a drifting vertical line array. Localization of a quiet source without a priori geoacoustic information is demonstrated on data from the SWellEx-96 experiment. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research.]