A series of controlled measurements were conducted to investigate shallow grazing angle acoustic detection of targets buried in sand having a rippled sediment–water interface. The measurements were performed in a 13.7-m deep, 110-m long, 80-m-wide test-pool with a 1.5-m layer of sand on the bottom. A silicone oil filled target sphere was buried under a rippled interface with contours formed by scraping the sand with a machined rake moved along a guide frame. Broadband, broad beam transducers were placed onto the shaft of a tilting motor. The transducers and tilting motor were attached to an elevated rail that enabled this assembly to be translated horizontally, permitting acquired data to be processed using synthetic aperture sonar techniques. Acoustic backscatter data were acquired at subcritical grazing angles in the frequency range of 10 to 50 kHz for various ripple wavelengths and heights. For each bottom configuration, the ripple profile over the buried target was measured using the In-situ Measurement of Porosity 2 (IMP2) system. Measurement results are presented that illustrate target detection via ripple scattering. The characteristics of the target return are found to depend sensitively on the ripple height and wavelength. [Work supported by ONR.]