Source localisation in shallow ocean using a vertical array of acoustic vector sensors

Abstract

This paper introduces a new approach to 3D localisation of a narrowband acoustic source in a shallow ocean using acoustic vector sensors (AVS). Assuming a horizontally stratified and range-independent model of the ocean, it is shown that the azimuth of the source can be determined from the estimates of the horizontal components of the acoustic intensity vector obtained from the measurements of an AVS. The range and depth of the source could then be estimated through a 2D search to match the computed complex acoustic intensity vector expressed as a function of these parameters with its estimate obtained from the AVS measurements. However the search in range is computationally intensive as the range parameter is unbounded. We propose an alternative approach employing a vertical array of AVS, based on eigen-decomposition of the spatial correlation matrix of the data vector, leading to a closed form solution for the range parameter. The source depth is then estimated through a 1D search of this bounded parameter.