Adaptive passive fathometer processing using ambient noise received by vertical nested array

Abstract

A passive fathometer technique utilizes surface-generated ambient noise received by a vertical line array as a sound source to estimate the depths of water-sediment interface and sub-bottom layers. Ambient noise was measured using a 24-channel, vertical nested line array consisting of four sub-arrays, in shallow water off the eastern coast of Korea. In this paper, nested array processing is applied to passive fathometer technique to improve the performance. Passive fathometer processing is performed for each sub-array, and the results are then combined to form a passive fathometer output for broadband ambient noise. Three types of beamforming technique, including conventional and two adaptive methods, are used in passive fathometer processing. The results are compared to the depths of water-sediment interface measured by an echo sounder. As a result, it is found that the adaptive methods have better performance than the conventional method. (C) 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics