Overview of reverberation measurements in Target and Reverberation Experiment 2013

Abstract

The Target and REverberation EXperiment 2013 (TREX13) was carried out off the coast of Panama City, Florida, from 22 April to 16 May, 2013. Two fixed-source/fixed-receiver acoustic systems were used to measure reverberation over time under diverse environmental conditions, allowing study of reverberation level (RL) dependence on bottom composition, sea surface conditions, and water column properties. Beamformed RL data are categorized to facilitate studies emphasizing (1) bottom reverberation; (2) sea surface impact; (3) biological impact; and (4) target echo. This presentation is an overview of RL over the entire experiment, summarizing major observations and providing a road map and suitable data sets for follow-up efforts on model/data comparisons. Emphasis will be placed on the dependence of RL on local geoacoustic properties and sea surface conditions. [Work supported by ONR.]