Broadband Acoustic Clutter

Abstract

LONG TERM GOALSThe long term goal associated with this project is to improve performance of low-mid frequency active sonar systems against clutter OBJECTIVESThe objectives are to understand the mechanisms that lead to clutter and develop models that predict the temporal/spatial/frequency dependence of the observed clutter. APPROACHThe experimental approach is based upon exploiting both long-range observations of clutter and shortrange, or direct-path observations (both seabed scattering and reflection) of the features that give rise to the clutter. Direct path observations offer two significant advantages: a) the uncertainties associated with propagation (through a generally sparsely sampled ocean) are minimized, and b) the measurement geometries are favorable to producing data from which hypotheses about the scattering mechanisms can be directly tested. The theoretical approach was taken and advanced from energy flux methods. This project is part of the Broadband Clutter Initiative Joint Research Project (JRP) including ARL-PSU, DRDC-A, the NATO Undersea Research Centre and NRL-DC.