Modeling of reverberation in the East China Sea

Abstract

Reverberant time series recorded in the East China Sea component of the Asian Seas International Acoustics Experiment are analyzed with the aid of a model of acoustic scattering from inhomogeneities in the seabed. Wideband sources deployed by the IOA were used to produce the time series, which were recorded on a thirty-two element VLA also deployed by the IOA. The model employs perturbation theory with the framework of a normal mode approach to evaluate scattering by fluctuations in the sound speed and density in the sediment volume as well as of the roughness of the water–sediment interface. The relative importance of surface and volume scattering at low frequencies in shallow-water environments, such as the East China Sea experimental location, is considered. Also, by incorporating this model in an environmental inversion scheme, information about the distribution of inhomogeneities may be gained. [Work supported by ONR.]