Abstract
Normal incidence seabed reflection data suffer from a variety of ambiguities that make quantitative interpretation difficult. The reflection coefficient has an inseparable ambiguity between bulk density and compressional sound speed. Even more serious, reflection data are a function of other sediment characteristics including interface roughness, volume heterogeneities, and local bathymetry. Seafloor interface curvature is especially important and can lead to focusing/defocusing of the reflected field. An attempt is made with ancillary data including bathymetry, 400 kHz backscatter, and wide angle seabed reflection data to separate some of the mechanisms. Resulting analysis of 1–12 kHz reflection data suggest: (1) strong lateral sediment heterogeneity exists on scales of 10–100 m; (2) there are distinct geoacoustic regimes on the lee and stoss side of the ridge crest, and also between crest and the swale, and (3) the ridge crest geoacoustic properties are similar across distances of 6 km along two perpendicular transects (1 correlation). [Research supported by ONR Ocean Acoustics.]
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