Shallow water bottom properties via matched field processing

The determination of bottom properties (such as sediment layer thicknesses and sediment sound-speeds) is critical in shallow water environments. It is also extremely difficult to achieve. However, when acoustic propagation is affected by such environmental parameters it becomes possible to use acoustic energy to probe a region of interest and thereby determine those parameters if the system and resources are carefully designed, and if the inversion technique is sufficiently powerful. Work has been progressing on the use of matched field processing to investigate the sensitivity of acoustic fields as a function of array deployment and design for the purposes of estimating the properties of sediment layers in water as shallow as 10 m. Simulation results are being investigated with the intention of applying the method to an excellent but highly complicated data set collected and analyzed by Badiey et al. (J. Acoustic. Soc. Am., vol.96, p.3593-3604, 1994).