Quantifying data information content in geoacoustic inversion

This paper examines the information content in matched-field geoacoustic inverse problems as a function of a variety of experiment factors, with the aim of guiding data collection and processing to achieve the best possible inversion results. The information content of the unknown geoacoustic parameters is quantified in terms of their marginal posterior probability distributions, which define the accuracy expected in inversion. Marginal distributions are estimated using a fast Gibbs sampler approach to Bayesian inversion, which provides an efficient, unbiased sampling of the multi-dimensional posterior probability density. When sampled to convergence, the marginal distributions are found to have simple, smooth shapes that facilitate straightforward comparisons. The approach is general; the specific examples considered here include factors such as the number of sensors in the receiving array, array length, source-receiver range, source frequency, number of frequencies, source bandwidth, and signal-to-noise ratio.