Undersea buried object detection using Stoneley-Scholtewaves: Application in coherent noise

A new system for buried object detection at the sea floor is presented. It is an alternative to SONAR systems using Stoneley-Scholte surface waves. The general processing method was presented in a previous publication. It is a multicomponent beamforming using an array of four component sensors set on the floor to detect echoes reflected by objects. In this paper we extend the optimal reception to waves in a correlated noise field. We derive from literature results an empirical model including spatial and intercomponent correlation. We present simulations based on it. Output SNR comparisons are made in optimal and non optimal cases. Finally we discuss the pertinence of the introduced model.