Seabed Classification Using Normal Incidence Backscatter Measurements in the 1-10 Kh Frequency Band

Abstract

It has been established that the 1 and 2"" seabed returnsfrom a monostatic echosounder can be used as a seabed classification tool. Typically these systems operate in the range of several tens of kHz so that bottom roughness at the seabed interface is the dominant scattering mechanism. In this paper we extend the model to lower frequencies: in this context lowerfrequency implies that scatterfrom the sub-bottom must be accountedfor in the model. Preliminary results indicate that volume scatter should provide an additional discrimination tool without significantly corrupting the seabed information contained in the interface scatter returns. Not surprisingly, this improvement comes at the cost offurther complicating the model.