Abstract

Abstract : The role of discrete scatterers in marine sediments is evaluated based on acoustic and environmental measurements at the shallow water sediment acoustics experiment, SAX04, and shown to be significant. The sediment at SAX04 site was complicated and characterized as a mostly medium sand / mud mixture. Analysis of the sediment samples showed presence of a small volume portion of arger particles, such as coarse sand fraction and shell fragments, which were considered as inclusions, or sparsely distributed discrete scatterers, embedded in a homogeneous effective fluid with parameters corresponding to medium sand or mud sediment frame. This analysis provided also the size distributions for both types of inclusions, coarse sand particles and shells, which were used as inputs to a model of incoherent discrete scattering in the sediment. It is demonstrated that this approach in general is capable to provide a reasonable explanation of both frequency and angular dependencies of the SASX04 bottom backscattering strength, and discrete scattering from the sediment inclusions can be a significant mechanism of the SAX04 high frequency reverberation in a wide range of grazing angles (15 to 50 degrees) and frequencies (30 kHz to 500 kHz).

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.