Ship-of-Opportunity Noise Inversions for Geoacoustic Profiles of a Layered Mud-Sand Seabed

This paper considers the use of broadband noise from a ship-of-opportunity in statistical inference for estimating geoacoustic parameters of a layered mud-sand seabed model via trans-dimensional (trans-D) Bayesian matched-field inversion, with applications to data collected with a bottom-moored horizontal array in the 2017 Seabed Characterization Experiment conducted on the New England Shelf. The trans-D approach applied here samples probabilistically over possible model parameterizations (different numbers of seabed layer interfaces), and provides quantitative uncertainty estimates of seabed geoacoustic profiles. Inversions are carried out for acoustic data sets collected both when the ship-of-opportunity (a container ship) was oriented with its bow and with its stern towards the array. A third inversion involved combining data from a series of segments along the ship track. Inversion results image an upper sediment layer 3-7 m thick with low-sound speed (close to the water sound speed) over higher speed sediment, with indication of a transition layer above the interface. Sediment parameter estimates from the inversions are in good agreement with direct measurements from sediment cores and other geophysical data collected in the experiment area.