The effect of environmental parameters on surface scattering strength

Abstract

Throughout the Critical Sea Test (CST) experiments, a large body of quality surface scattering data was accumulated which was collected over a broad range of sea states using both explosive (SUS) charges (impulsive sources) and transmitting arrays (waveform sources). Simultaneously, an extensive suite of environmental measurements was also made, providing a unique data set with which to examine how the surface scattering strength changes with various environmental parameters. Historically wind speed has been the environmental descriptor of choice, but while this is the dominating factor, wind speed alone was found to be inadequate to fully describe all the observations. Other important environmental descriptors will be discussed, and some of their effects on surface scattering at both very high and very low sea states will be demonstrated. The latest empirical surface scattering strength algorithm based on all the CST SUS measurements will also be described, and the effect of current findings on future modifications to this algorithm will be discussed.