This is an investigation of sound propagation over a muddy seabed at low grazing angles. Data were collected during the 2017 Seabed and Bottom Characterization Experiment, conducted on the New England Mud Patch, a 500 km² area of the U.S. Eastern Continental Shelf characterized by a thick layer of muddy sediments. Sound Underwater Signals (SUS), model Mk64, were deployed at ranges of 1–15 km from a hydrophone positioned 1 m above the seafloor. SUS at the closest ranges provide measurements of the bottom reflection at low grazing angles (< 3 deg). Broadband analysis from 10 Hz to 10 kHz reveals resonances in the bottom reflected signals. Comparison of the measurements to simulated signals suggest a surficial layer of mud with a sound speed lower than the underlying mud and overlying water. The low sound speed property at the water–mud interface, which persists for less than 1 m, establishes a sound duct that impacts mid-frequency sound propagation at low grazing angles. The presence of a low-speed surficial layer of mud could be universal to muddy seabeds and, hence, has strong implications for mid-frequency sound propagation wherever mud is present.

A generalization of the conventional interface scattering cross section is introduced. This new object will be called the mutual scattering cross section, and, like the conventional cross section, can be used in narrow-band sonar applications. It can treat both sea-surface and seafloor scattering and is useful in cases where large arrays are employed as well as in multipath environments. The application to large arrays with uniform half-space water column and seafloor is examined briefly, but the bulk of this article is devoted to multipathing in the ocean waveguide. Comparisons with more accurate, but more numerically intensive, approaches in range-independent environments show that the mutual cross section can provide an efficient solution for the reverberation intensity time series. The mutual cross section incorporates interference effects causing oscillations in the reverberation time series. Such oscillations have been reported in the literature, but previous modeling efforts have been ad hoc, not based on scattering physics. The mutual cross section is shown to model backscattering enhancement due to multipathing, another phenomenon not seen in simpler models. Expressions for the mutual cross section are derived for seafloor roughness scattering and sediment volume scattering.

The primary goal of the Target and Reverberation Experiment in spring 2013 (TREX13) was to identify the major physical mechanisms responsible for midfrequency reverberation. While both the sea surface and seafloor can contribute to reverberation, the seafloor is typically dominant in shallow water environments. To determine the level of this contribution at the TREX13 site, the bottom backscatter sonar (BBS) was deployed from a dive boat at multiple locations around the site. The BBS consists of a source and a receiver mounted on a short bracket that is suspended above the seafloor to measure direct-path bottom backscatter at 3 kHz. Data near normal incidence were interpreted as bottom reflectivity, which was used to quantitatively explain the range-dependence of the sediment composition at the experiment site. Two factors restricted the estimates of the bottom backscatter strength to the minimum grazing angle of 21°: the currents at the experiment site made it difficult to position the system close to the seafloor, and the shallow water depth resulted in sea surface scatter contaminating small angle bottom backscatter. From the measured backscatter strength and by utilizing available environmental data, initial models of scattering strength indicate that at the shallow grazing angles of importance to reverberation, the scattering on the sand ridges is dominated by roughness scattering while in the muddy areas of the ridge swales, volume scattering dominates. The volume scattering from these mud areas is significantly stronger than the roughness scattering on the ridges by as much as 10 dB and may explain the substantial fluctuations observed in the reverberation as a function of range.

The twilight feeding migration of fish around a shallow water artificial reef (a shipwreck) was observed by a horizontal-looking, mid-frequency sonar. The sonar operated at frequencies between 1.8 and 3.6 kHz and consisted of a co-located source and horizontal line array deployed at 4 km from the reef. The experiment was conducted in a well-mixed shallow water waveguide which is conducive to characterizing fish aggregations at these distances. Large aggregations of fish were repeatedly seen to emerge rapidly from the shipwreck at dusk, disperse into the surrounding area during the night, and quickly converge back to the shipwreck at dawn. This is a rare, macroscopic observation of an ecologically-important reef fish behavior, delivered at the level of aggregations, instead of individual fish tracks that have been documented previously. The significance of this observation on sonar performance associated with target detection in the presence of fish clutter is discussed based on analyses of echo intensity and statistics. Building on previous studies of long-range fish echoes, this study further substantiates the unique utility of such sonar systems as an ecosystem monitoring tool, and illustrates the importance of considering the impact of the presence of fish on sonar applications.

The Target and Reverberation EXperiment 2013 (TREX13) included a comprehensive reverberation field project in the frequency band of 2–10 kHz, and was carried out off the coast of Panama City, FL, USA, from April 21 to May 17, 2013. A spatially fixed transmit and receive acoustic system was used to measure reverberation over time under diverse environmental conditions, allowing study of reverberation level (RL) dependence on bottom composition, sea surface conditions, and water column properties. Extensive in situ measurements, including a multibeam bathymetric survey, chirp sonar subbottom profiling, gravity/diver cores, sediment sound speed and attenuation, interface roughness, wind-generated sea surface waves, and water column properties, were made to support studies of environmental effects on RL. Beamformed RL data are categorized to facilitate studies emphasizing physical mechanisms of 1) bottom reverberation; 2) sea surface impact; and 3) biological impact. This paper is an overview of RL over the entire sea trial, intending to summarize major observations and provide both a road map and suitable data sets for follow-up efforts on model/data comparisons. Emphasis is placed on the dependence of RL on local geoacoustic properties and sea surface conditions.

The sediment acoustic-speed measurement system is designed to measure in situ sediment sound speed and attenuation within the surficial 3 m of sediments in the frequency band of 2–8 kHz. Measurements were carried out during the Target and Reverberation EXperiment 2013 (TREX13) off Panama City, FL, USA. During TREX13, nine deployments at five selected sites were made along the 20-m isobath, termed the main reverberation track. The sediment types at the five selected sites ranged from coarse sand to a mixture of soft mud over sand, and the measured results show a spread of 80 m/s in sediment sound speed among the different types of sediments for all frequencies. Between 2–8 kHz, about 3% dispersion was observed at the sandy sites, whereas little dispersion was observed at the sites with mud. Preliminary attenuation results show 0.5–3.3 dB/m at the sandy sites, and 0.5–1.0 dB/m at the sites with mud in the same frequency band.

Professor Joe Henderson of the University of Washington physics department formed the Applied Physics Laboratory during WWII. The lab’s initial efforts were to redesign the magnetic influence exploders used in US torpedoes. One of the lab’s first Underwater Acoustics (UA) successes was development of transducers used in the Bikini Atoll Able test (1946). Those transducers, used to trigger other instrumentation, proved critical. Combining UA and torpedo expertise brought APL-UW to the forefront of tracking range design, construction and deployment in Dabob Bay, Nanoose, and St. Croix in the 1950s and 1960. Understanding the torpedo behavior seen in tracking ranges required measuring both the ocean environment and the acoustics within that environment. Making those measurements, as well as development and testing of models based on those measurements, also became standard operating procedure at APL, led in the 50’s by Murphy and Potter. This blueprint of applied research motivating basic research, and the pursuit of basic research via ocean experiments and high fidelity modeling, continues to this day. The presentation will follow this evolution. APL-UW ocean experiments carried out during that time, as well as notable APL-UW research papers, technical reports, computer codes and textbooks, will be used as guideposts.

In the spring of 2013, a shallow water reverberation experiment was conducted to measure contemporaneous acoustic and sufficient environmental data so detailed model/data comparisons could be achieved and important environmental factors could be identified for different applications. The Target and Reverberation Experiment (TREX13) was sponsored by the US Office of Naval Research and the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. It was conducted from April to June of 2013 off the coast of Panama City Beach, Florida, in collaboration with multiple institutions and involving three research vessels: The R/V Sharp, R/V Walton Smith, and the Canadian Force Auxiliary Vessel Quest. From a SONAR viewpoint, reverberation consists of two-way propagation and a single backscatter. Therefore, reverberation, transmission loss, and bottom backscatter were repeatedly measured over a time period of several weeks in the frequency band of 2-10 kHz, along with extensive environmental measurements. To reduce the area over which environmental measurements were needed, the reverberation was measured using a horizontal line array mounted 1 m above the seafloor in 19 m of water. The reverberation, transmission loss, and bottom backscatter were measured along a single beam of the array out to a distance of 7 km. Discussed will be planning and execution of the field experiments, strategies and steps for data analysis, and modeling efforts.

Clutter is related to false alarms for active sonar. It is demonstrated that, in shallow water, target-like clutter in reverberation signals can be caused by nonlinear internal waves. A nonlinear internal wave is modeled using measured stratification on the New Jersey shelf. Reverberation in the presence of the internal wave is modeled numerically. Calculations show that acoustic energy propagating near a sound speed minimum is deflected as a high intensity, higher angle beam into the bottom, where it is backscattered along the reciprocal path. The interaction of sound with the internal wave is isolated in space, hence resulting in a target-like clutter, which is found to be greater than 10 dB above the mean reverberation level.

A rough-interface reverberation model is developed for range-dependent environments. First-order perturbation theory is employed, and the unperturbed background medium can be layered and heterogeneous with arbitrary range dependence. To calculate the reverberation field, two-way forward scatter due to the slowly changing unperturbed environment is handled by fast numerical methods. Backscatter due to small roughness superimposed on any of the slowly varying interfaces is handled efficiently using a Monte Carlo approach. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the application of the model. The primary purpose of the model is to incorporate relevant physics while improving computational speed.

Downward looking sonar, such as the chirp sonar, is widely used as a sediment survey tool in shallow water environments. Inversion of geo-acoustic parameters from such sonar data precedes the availability of forward models. An exact numerical model is developed to initiate the simulation of the acoustic field produced by such a sonar in the presence of multiple rough interfaces. The sediment layers are assumed to be fluid layers with non-intercepting rough interfaces.

Geoacoustic inversion work has typically been carried out at frequencies below 1 kHz, assuming flat, horizontally stratified bottom models. Despite the relevance to Navy sonar systems many of which operate at mid-frequencies (1–10 kHz), limited inversion work has been carried out in this frequency band. This paper is an effort to demonstrate the viability of geoacoustic inversion using bottom loss data between 2 and 5 kHz. The acoustic measurements were taken during the Shallow Water 2006 Experiment off the coast of New Jersey. A half-space bottom model, with three parameters density, compressional wave speed, and attenuation, was used for inversion by fitting the model to data in the least-square sense. Inverted sediment sound speed and attenuation were compared with direct measurements and with inversion results using different techniques carried out in SW06. Inverted results of the present work are consistent with other measurements, considering the known spatial variability in this area. The observations and modeling results demonstrate that forward scattering from topographical changes is important at mid-frequencies and should be taken into account in sound propagation predictions and geoacoustic inversion. To cope with fine-scale topographic variability, measurement technique such as averaging over tracks may be necessary.

Geoacoustic inversion work has typically been carried out at frequencies below 1 kHz, assuming flat, horizontally stratified bottom models. Despite the relevance to Navy sonar systems, many of which operate at mid-frequencies (1-10 kHz), limited inversion work has been carried out in this frequency band. This paper is an effort to demonstrate the viability of geoacoustic inversion using bottom loss data in the frequency band of 2-5 kHz. The acoustic measurements were taken during the Shallow Water 2006 Experiment off the coast of New Jersey. A half-space bottom model, with three parameters, density, compressional wave speed, and attenuation, was used for geoacoustic inversion by fitting the model to data in the least-squares sense. Inverted sediment sound speed was compared with direct measurements and inversion results using different techniques in the same area. The comparison shows that bottom loss can be used to infer sediment geoacoustic parameters at mid-frequencies. In addition, observations and modeling results demonstrate that forward scattering from topographical changes is important at mid-frequencies and should be taken into account in sound propagation predictions and geoacoustic inversion. To cope with fine-scale topographic variability, measurement technique such as averaging over tracks may be necessary.

Chirp sonar is widely used as a survey tool in shallow water. A chirp sonar measures reflection and backscatter of normal incident sound from sediment interfaces and volume heterogeneity. Motivated by using such chirp sonar data to invert for goeacoustic parameters, a forward model is developed that uses an exact method on which practical models can be based. Here volume heterogeneity is ignored and only scattering by a set of rough interface is modeled. If these interfaces are flat, the received data will be a series of reflections from the interfaces. However, these interfaces are in general rough and a forward model should be able to quantitatively handle scattering from these rough interfaces, including full scattering from each interface and multiple scattering among the set of interfaces. A set of integral equations is derived, which provides the numerical mechanism to calculate the scattered field from the rough interfaces, and numerical examples are presented.

During the 2006 Shallow Water (SW06) experiment, simultaneous measurements were made of the sound-speed field as a function of range and depth associated with nonlinear internal waves and acoustic propagation at frequencies of 2–10 kHz over a 1-km path. The internal waves were measured by a towed conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) chain to get high resolution. These measurements were coordinated so that the nonlinear waves could be interpolated onto the acoustic path, allowing predictions of their effects on the acoustics. Using the measured sound-speed field, the acoustic arrivals under the influence of the internal waves are modeled and compared to data. The largest impact of measured moderate amplitude internal waves on acoustics is that they alter the arrival time of the rays which turn at the thermocline.

As part of the effort to characterize the acoustic and physical properties of the seafloor during the high-frequency 2004 Sediment Acoustics Experiment (SAX04), fine-scale variability of sediment sound speed and density was measured in a medium quartz sand using diver cores and an in situ conductivity probe. This study has a goal of providing environmental input to high-frequency backscatter modeling efforts. Because the experiment was conducted immediately following exposure of the site to Hurricane Ivan, measurements revealed storm-generated sedimentary structure that included mud deposits and trapped sand pockets suspended in the mud.

Fluctuations of sediment sound speed and density were measured downcore at 1- and 2-cm increments, respectively, with standard laboratory techniques. Sediment density was also measured on a very fine scale with an in situ conductivity probe [in situ measurement of porosity (IMP2)] and by means of computed tomography (CT) imaging of a diver core. Overlap between the locations of the diver cores and the conductivity probe measurements allowed an examination of multiple scales of sediment heterogeneity and a comparison of techniques. Sediment heterogeneity was characterized using estimates of covariance corresponding to an algebraic form for the power spectrum of fluctuations obtained from core, conductivity, and CT measurements. Correcting for sampling brings the power spectra for density fluctuations determined from the various measurements into agreement, and supports description of heterogeneity at the site over a wide range of scales by a power spectrum having a simple algebraic form.

The effect on the ambient noise level in shallow water of the ocean growing more acidic is modeled. Because most noise sources are near the surface, high-order acoustic modes are preferentially excited. Linear internal waves, however, can scatter the noise into the low-order, low-loss modes most affected by the changes in acidity. The model uses transport theory to couple the modes and assumes an isotropic distribution for the noise sources. For a scenario typical of the East China Sea, the noise at 3 kHz is predicted to increase by 30%, about one decibel, as the pH decreases from 8.0 to 7.4.

Nonlinear internal waves are a common event on the continental shelf. The waves depress the high-gradient region of the thermocline and thicken the surface mixed layer with consequent effect on acoustic propagation. After the waves have passed, it may take several hours for the thermocline to rise to its prewave level.

To examine the effect of the rising thermocline, oceanographic and acoustic data collected during the 2006 Shallow Water Experiment (SW06) are analyzed. Midfrequency acoustic data (1.5-10.5 kHz) taken for several hours at both fixed range (550 m) and along a tow track (0.1-8.1 km) are studied. At the fixed range, the rising thermocline is shown to increase acoustic intensity by approximately 5 dB. Along the tow track, the transmission loss changes 2 dB for a source-receiver pair that straddles the thermocline. Using oceanographic moorings up to 2.2 km away from the acoustic receiver, a model for the rising thermocline is developed. This ocean model is used as input to a broadband acoustic model. Results from the combined model are shown to be in good agreement with experimental observation. The effects on acoustic signals are shown to be observable, significant, and predictable.

Sandy sediment ripples impact sonar performance in coastal waters through Bragg scattering. Observations from data suggest that sandy ripple elevation relative to the mean seafloor as a function of the horizontal coordinates is not Gaussian distributed; specifically, peak amplitude fading over space associated with a random Gaussian process is largely absent. Such a non-Gaussian nature has implications for modeling acoustic scattering from, and penetration into, sediments. An algorithm is developed to generate ripple fields with a given power spectrum; these fields have non-Gaussian statistics and are visually consistent with data. Higher order statistics of these ripple fields and their implications to sonar detection are discussed.

In "sound transmission through a fluctuating ocean," Flattxe et al. described saturation of a single acoustic path as that path becoming a number of interfering uncorrelated micropaths due to refraction by internal waves. The probability density function of intensity becomes exponential with a scintillation index of 1.0. In deep water, however, full saturation is not achieved due to weak scattering and absorption.

Mid-frequency (1–10 kHz) data from the Shallow Water 2006 Experiment are used to determine single-path intensity statistics. At a range of 1 km in water 80 m deep, an acoustic path is isolated that went through two upper turning points separated by a single bottom reflection. The data were collected during a period when large nonlinear internal waves were absent. The scintillation index calculated from the data increases with frequency until reaching a maximum of 1.2 around 6 kHz. It then decreases to 1.0, suggesting that single-path saturation can be achieved at mid-frequencies in shallow water. The probability density functions of intensity at various frequencies show a trend toward exponential. Because shallow water internal waves are dominated by the first mode, uncorrelated micropaths are an unlikely mechanism for producing the observed saturation.

To support modeling acoustic backscatter from the seafloor, a conductivity probe and a laser line scanner were deployed jointly to measure bottom roughness during an experiment off the New Jersey coast in summer 2006. The conductivity probe in situ measurement of porosity (IMP2) is impervious to water turbidity and yields a 1-D profile with 10-mm horizontal spacing and 1-mm resolution in the vertical direction. The laser line scanner is limited by water visibility but it provides 2-D grid points with resolutions 0.3 mm across track, 0.5 mm along track, and 0.3 mm in the vertical direction. Two sets of data, suitable to model mid- to high-frequency acoustic backscatter, were collected from two sites 900 m apart on August 14 and 17, 2006. The roughness spectra obtained from the laser scanning were compared to those measured by the IMP2. The spectra from the two methods are consistent over wave number range 0.0188-3 rad/cm, which are the wave number range common to both methods. The efficacy of the laser scanner is also confirmed by showing the spectral line created by the IMP2's periodic probing marks. The 2-D spectra generated from the laser scan data show that the bottom roughness at these sites is azimuthally isotropic, but significant spatial heterogeneity is observed.

A statistical model for the time evolution of seafloor roughness due to biological activity is applied to photographic and acoustic data. In this model, the function describing small scale seafloor topography obeys a time-evolution equation with a random forcing term that creates roughness and a diffusion term that degrades roughness. When compared to acoustic data from the 1999 and 2004 Sediment Acoustics Experiments (SAX99 and SAX04), the model yields diffusivities in the range from 3.5 times 10^-11 to 2.5 times 10^-10 m² s^-1 (from 10 to 80 cm² yr^-1), with the larger values occurring at sites where bottom-feeding fish were active. While the experimental results lend support to the model, a more focused experimental and simulation effort is required to test several assumptions intrinsic to the model.

The results from two bottom backscattering experiments are described in this paper. These experiments occurred within about 1 km of each other but were separated by approximately five years (1999 and 2004). The experimental methods used in the second experiment were changed based on lessons learned in the first experiment. These changes and the motivation for them are discussed. The sediment at each experiment site would generally be classified as the same (as a well-sorted medium sand sediment) before the weather events (Hurricane Ivan and Tropical Storm Matthew) that occurred in late September and early October 2004. As a result of these weather events, the sediment present during the October 18, 2004 experiments was much more complicated than that in 1999 and in many places had a mud/sand surface layer.

The environmental measurements in both experiments were sufficient to separate physical mechanisms responsible for scattering. For shallow grazing angles (less than 45deg), backscattering at frequencies between 20 and 150 kHz was attributable to sediment interface roughness in 1999, whereas volume scattering dominated in 2004. Furthermore, in 2004, volume heterogeneity within the mud/sand surface layer is a probable mechanism for the scattering feature seen in the data in the 20deg-30deg region. Above 200 kHz, the frequency dependence of both the 1999 data and the 2004 data indicates that a new scattering mechanism is coming into play. Other results within this issue [Ivakin, IEEE J. Ocean. Eng., vol. 34, no. 4, Oct. 2009] indicate that scattering from shells is a viable candidate for explaining the data above 200 kHz.

The topography of the seabed is influenced by sediment transport due to wave motion, current disturbance, and biological activities. The bottom roughness generated by these processes can substantially alter acoustic wave penetration into and scattering from the bottom, and therefore, it is essential to make accurate measurements of the bottom roughness for such acoustic applications. Methods to make direct measurements of bottom roughness include stereo photography, laser line scanning, and sediment conductivity. Roughness can also be measured indirectly using high-frequency sound backscatter. For optically-based methods, the accuracy of these measurements is typically evaluated using the elevations, lengths, or diameters of simple surface features of known dimensions. However, for acoustic applications, the statistical characteristics of the surface, e.g., the roughness spectrum, are more meaningful.

In this paper, we present a fabricated rough surface milled into a 40 times 60 cm² plastic block for use as a benchmark in the assessment of two in situ roughness measurement systems: a laser scanning system and a digital stereo photography system. The surface has a realistic roughness power spectrum that is derived from the bottom roughness measured during the 1999 Sediment Acoustics Experiment (SAX99) and was fabricated by a computer numerical controlled milling machine. By comparing the fabricated surface spectrum to the measured spectrum, a determination of the accuracy of the roughness measurement is evaluated, which is of direct relevance to acoustic applications.

In some applications of underwater acoustics, it is important to know the ripple structure on shallow-water sediments. For example, the prediction of buried target detection via sound scattering by ripples depends critically on the ripple height and spatial wavelength. Another example is the study of sediment transport, where knowing the ripple structure and its evolution over time helps to understand the forcing on the bottom and the response of sediments.

Here, backscatter data from a 300-kHz system are used to show that ripple wavelength and height can be estimated from backscatter images via a simple inversion formula. The inversion results are consistent with in situ measurements of the ripple field using an independent measurement system. Motivated by the backscatter data, we have developed a time-domain numerical model to simulate scattering of high-frequency sound by a ripple field. This model treats small-scale scatterers as Lambertian scatterers distributed randomly on the large-scale ripple field. Numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the conditions under which remote sensing of bottom ripple heights, wavelength, and its power spectrum is possible.

While the mechanism of Bragg scattering is well known, most experimental work has been concentrated in the area of narrow band sound sources and in the far-field. Motivated by underwater detection problems in the presence of sediment ripple fields, we report laboratory measurements of broadband sound scattering from a sinusoidal surface machined on a polyurethane board. The surface has a wavelength of 8 mm and peak-to-peak height of 2 mm. Coherently scattered sound data were taken in near-field geometries and in the frequency band of 150–400 kHz. The measurement geometry is such that a broad range of Bragg angles corresponding to the frequency band are covered. We observe that the scattered sound demonstrates a down chirp time dependence when the incident sound is a short pulse. Models based on first order perturbation theory were developed which explain the observed scattered sound in both magnitude and phase. In addition, we also measured second order Bragg scattering. This motivates modeling efforts on higher order Bragg scatter.

During the Shallow Water 2006 experiment, simultaneous measurements were made of the sound speed structure associated with nonlinear internal waves and acoustic propagation at frequencies of 2–10 kHz over a 1 km path. The internal waves were measured by a towed CTD chain in order to get high resolution. These measurements were coordinated so that the nonlinear waves can be interpolated onto the acoustic path, allowing predictions of their effects on the acoustics. An internal wave train was measured that passed the acoustic path on August 13. When the wave train was in between the sound source and receiver, distinctive arrival time oscillations on three acoustic paths were measured, which are all rays having an upper turning point. Using the CTD chain data, a deterministic explanation is given to the arrival time oscillations.

Vertical spatial coherence for shallow water propagation at frequencies 1–10 kHz is studied as function of range (50 to 5000 m), as part of the Shallow-Water 2006 program that took place off the coast of New Jersey in August 2006 in waters 80 m deep. An acoustic source was deployed from the R/V Knorr at depths 30 and 40 m and signals were recorded on a moored receiving system consisting of two 1.4 m long vertical line arrays (VLA) centered at depths 25 and 50 m. At all ranges, spatial coherence (normalized spatial correlation) is locally stationary and depends on element vertical separation d up to the maximum kd (59) afforded by the VLA, where k is acoustic wave number. For range normalized by depth, r*, less than about 10, spatial coherence is oscillatory, with non-zero imaginary part, reflecting the inclusion of multipaths for which no single path dominates. For r* greater than 10, spatial coherence tends to exhibit a monotonic decay with kd and the imaginary part vanishes reflecting symmetry about 0 deg vertical arrival angle. The coherence also increases with r* reflecting the change in modal structure.

Knowledge of sediment sound speed is crucial for predicting sound propagation. During the Shallow Water '06 experiment, in situ sediment sound speed was measured using the Sediment Acoustic-speed Measurement System (SAMS). SAMS consists of ten fixed sources and one receiver that can reach a maximal sediment depth of 3 m. Measurements were made in the frequency range 2&$150;35 kHz. Signal arrival times and propagation distances were recorded, from which sediment sound speed was determined. Preliminary results from three deployments show that SAMS was capable of determining sediment sound speed with uncertainties less than 1.6%. Little dispersion in sediment sound speed was observed.

The scintillation index and the intensity cumulative distribution function of mid-frequency (2–10 kHz) sound propagation are presented at ranges of 1–9 km in a shallow water channel. The fluctuations are due to water column sound speed variability. It is found that intensity is only correlated over a narrow frequency band (50–200 Hz) and the bandwidth is independent of center frequency and range. Furthermore, the intensity probability distribution peaks at zero for all frequencies, and follows an exponential distribution at small values.

Mid-frequency (1–10 kHz) sound propagation was measured at ranges 1–9 km in shallow water in order to investigate intensity statistics. Warm water near the bottom results in a sound speed minimum. Environmental measurements include sediment sound speed and water sound speed and density from a towed conductivity-temperature-depth chain. Ambient internal waves contribute to acoustic fluctuations. A simple model involving modes with random phases predicts the mean transmission loss to within a few dB. Quantitative ray theory fails due to near axial focusing. Fluctuations of the intensity field are dominated by water column variability.

Preliminary results are presented from an analysis of mid-frequency acoustic transmission data collected at range 550 m during the Shallow Water 2006 Experiment. The acoustic data were collected on a vertical array immediately before, during, and after the passage of a nonlinear internal wave on 18 August, 2006. Using oceanographic data collected at a nearby location, a plane-wave model for the nonlinear internal wave's position as a function of time is developed. Experimental results show a new acoustic path is generated as the internal wave passes above the acoustic source.

First, we would like to thank our ONR sponsors, particularly Drs. Ellen Livingston, Theresa Paluszkiewicz, and Tom Curtin for their support of the SW06 experiment, and their help in coordinating its efforts.

Next, the success of this very large-scale field project benefited enormously from the collaboration of all participants and shared equipment and resources. We thus thank all our SW06 collaborators, both Principal Investigators and support personnel, for their collegiality and generosity in the performance of this experiment.

Finally, we would like to thank Drs. William Carey, Keith Wilson, and Allan Pierce of JASA EL and JASA for their efforts to make this special issue a reality.

A unique Sediment Acoustic-speed Measurement System (SAMS) was developed to directly measure sediment sound speed. The system consists of ten fixed sources and one receiver. In a typical deployment, the SAMS is deployed from a ship that is dynamically positioned. The sources are arranged just above the sea bottom and the receiver is drilled into the sediment with controlled steps by a vibro-core. The maximal sediment penetration depth is 3 meters. At each receiver depth, the 10 sources transmit to the receiver at different angles in the frequency range of 2–35 kHz, providing 10 estimates of sound speed through time-of-flight measurements from the known source-to-receiver geometry. SAMS was deployed three times during the recent Shallow Water Experiment 2006 (SW06) on the New Jersey shelf at 80 m water depth. Preliminary results of sediment sound speed are 1618 ± 11, 1598 ± 10, and 1600 ± 20 m/s at three separate deployment locations. Little dispersion in sediment sound speed was observed.

As part of the ONR-sponsored SW06 experiment, mid-frequency sound propagation was measured at ranges 1–10 km in the frequency band of 2–10 kHz in August, 2006. The water depth is 80 m and the source depth is 30 m, close to the minimum of a duct with a thermocline above and a warm salty water below. The receivers are clustered into two groups, one at 25 m depth, the other at 50 m. The region has active internal wave activity during this time. Because the source is near the axis of the sound channel, it is observed that propagation is dominated by trapped modes and behaves similar to sound propagation in a deep water duct. Amplitude fluctuations and cross-frequency correlations are estimated. The scintillation index as a function of frequency and bandwidth is calculated.

Fluctuations of an intensity of the broadband pulses are studied in mid-frequency area (2 – 4.5 kHz) propagating in the shallow water in the presence of intensive internal waves (IW) moving approximately along an acoustic track. Theory elaborated earlier predicts that in this case specific features of fluctuations are provided by modes coupling (for low frequency sound) or ray scattering (high frequency area) and depend on direction of propagation of signals relative wave front of IW. The corresponding research was carried out during mult-institutional experiment SW06 in New Jersey shelf. We analyze temporal dependence of intensity for the sequence of the sound pulses radiated from the R/V Knorr during approximately one hour — 15:31–16:20 GMT (August 13, 2006) and received by two separate single hydrophone units (SHRUs) placed at different distance from the source (~4 km and ~12 km). The corresponding acoustic tracks had a little different directions relative wave front of IW. Properties of IW were established using temperature records of sensors in different locations. It is shown that frequency spectra of fluctuations for these SHRUs have different predominating frequencies in accordance with mentioned directions of acoustic tracks. Results of measurements are compared with theoretical estimations and demonstrate good consistency.

On two occasions during the SW06 experiment, towed CTD chain measurements were made close to an acoustic propagation path. The acoustic path was 1 km long, oriented roughly in the direction of propagation of large nonlinear internal waves. On the first occasion, large nonlinear internal waves were absent, and on the second occasion, they were present. The CTD chain was towed in loops around the acoustic path, roughly 200 m on either side of the path. On the first occasion, 17 loops were made in about 5.5 hr, and on the second occasion, 7 loops were made in about 2.5 hr. Throughout these time periods, acoustic transmissions between 2 kHz and 10 kHz were carried out. The acoustic environment on the path is estimated by space and time interpolation between the tows on the two sides of the path. The acoustic data is compared with propagation modeling in this environment.

Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) is used often to detect targets that are either proud or buried below a sandy sediment interface where the nominal grazing angle of incidence from the SAS to the point above a buried target is below the critical grazing angle. A numerical model for scattering from simple targets in a shallow water environment will be described, and can be used to generate pings suitable for SAS processing. For buried targets, the model includes reverberation from the rough seafloor, penetration through the interface, target scattering, and propagation back to the SAS. The reverberation and penetration components are derived from first order perturbation theory where small-scale roughness and superimposed ripple can be accommodated. For proud targets, the simulations include the scattering from the target where interaction with the seafloor is included through simple acoustic ray models. The interaction of the target with an incident field is based on a free field scattering model. Simulations will be compared to both benchmark problems and measurements over a frequency range of 10–30 kHz. These comparisons further support sediment ripple structure as the dominant mechanism for subcritical penetration in this frequency range.

Since the end of the Cold War, the US Navy has had an increasing interest in continental shelves and slopes as operational areas. To work in such areas requires a good understanding of ocean acoustics, coastal physical oceanography, and, in the modern era, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) operations.

Undersea noise was collected on a vertical array affected by ocean currents and internal waves. Such fluctuations are known to negatively affect the accuracy of the inferred bottom loss over grazing angles. However, bottom loss is just an intermediate parameter to sonar performance predictions. The bottom loss at the dominant incident angles on the ocean floor is of most importance to the prediction of sound transmission. Therefore, the focus of attention should be on the effect of waveguide dynamics on the predicted acoustic propagation using the estimated bottom loss. Simultaneous transmission loss measurements are compared against predictions from several snapshots of collected element-level wind-driven noise to determine the bias and statistical moments associated with the in situ sonar performance estimations across frequency and range. In addition, dominant mode rejection will be applied on a subset of the data that is influenced by nearby ship interference to examine its impact on the robustness of this approach to passive environmental assessment.

Knowing the temporal change of the seabed, we can understand the nature of the undersea environment in more details. The scale of the features on the seabed varies from meters for large sandwaves, and down to less than one millimeter for the prints left by marine creatures. So far, there is not a single instrument that can cover the whole range and still preserve the resolution. For measuring small-scale roughness of seabed, laser scanning is an alternative. In this work, we report the integration of Seabed Laser Scanner (SLS), developed by Institute of Undersea Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, on the linear stage of In Situ Measurement of Porosity 2 (IMP2), developed by Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington to carry out deep sea sediment 2D roughness measurement and comparison. IMP2 consists of a 4 meter long scaffold and a linear stage. SLS is mounted on the linear stage to carry out the scanning. To simplify the integration and avoid the possible failure coming from the additional underwater connections, SLS is designed to be a self-contained system. It runs on a PC104 with Windows XP and feeds on its own battery pack. The only interaction between the two systems is achieved by the proximity of a set of magnets and a relay. As the linear stage starts, the first magnet triggers SLS to power up and standby. As the stage comes to the end of the rack, the second magnet triggers the image acquisition. The integrated system was deployed three times during the Shallow Acoustics Experiment 2006, about eighty miles off the coast of New Jersey. We successfully retrieved data from SLS for the first two trials; the third trial failed due to the aborted mission of IMP2. A 300 cm times 30 cm and a 350 cm times 25 cm seafloor were mapped at 80-meter water depth. From the reconstructed 3D surfaces, we found that the seafloor is full of shell debris and covered by mud-like sediment. The 2D spectra were estimated from the 3D surface. The results indicated that the seafloor roughness follows a power-law spectrum and isotropic. These spectra estimated provide the boundary condition for modeling the acoustic propagation and scattering.

Observations of seabed bubbles (62 m depth) at a natural marine hydrocarbon seep by passive acoustic and optical approaches are compared. The acoustic and optical methods observed a bimodal distribution with peaks at 1500 and 1750 Hz, and 2200 and 2800 μm radius, respectively. Radii were ~20% lower than predicted by the Minnaert formula. Frequency shifts were observed for bubbles emitted within a few milliseconds and were attributed to coupling between nearby bubbles. Surfactants also may have played a role.

The vertical directivity pattern of the ambient noise field observed in shallow water is typically anisotropic with a trough in the horizontal. This trough, often called the ambient noise notch, develops because downward refraction steepens all rays emanating from near the sea surface. Variability in the environment has the potential to redistribute the noise into shallower angles and thereby fill the notch. In the present work, a model for the width and depth of the ambient noise notch is developed. Transport theory for acoustic propagation is combined with a shallow water internal wave model to predict the average output of a beamformer. Ambient noise data from the East China Sea are analyzed in the 1-to-5-kHz band. Good agreement between the model and the data for both the width and depth of the ambient noise notch is obtained at multiple frequencies, suggesting that internal wave effects are significant.

An experiment was conducted near shore in water depth between 2 and 10 m. The sediment consists of uniform sand. A lone hydrophone was moored 2 m above the bottom at 6 m depth. A small boat traveling at constant speed was used as the sound source, and ran both parallel and perpendicular to shore. Thus, both the range-independent as well as range-dependent cases can be investigated. Environmental parameters in both the water column and the sediment are independently measured. We first will study the propagation of broadband noise from bubbles emitted from a small boat in this special environment, especially the interferences of modes in the wedge-shape waveguide. Both analytical and numerical approaches are used to simulate the field experiment and to obtain general conclusions concerning mode interference in range-dependent environments. Then we will use the data to invert for sediment sound speed as a function of frequency. This is achieved by investigating mode cut-off for different frequencies at different water depths. In the present work, sediment sound speed is estimated over the frequency range of 500 C–4500 Hz.

Coherent underwater communication is hampered by the time spread inherent to acoustic propagation in the ocean. Because time-reversal signal processing produces pulse compression, communications has been suggested as a natural application of the technique. Passive versions of time-reversal processing use a receive-only array to do combined temporal and spatial matched filtering. It can be shown, however, that the pulse compression it achieves is not perfect and that an equalizer that relies solely on time-reversal processing will have an error floor caused by uncompensated intersymbol interference (ISI). In the present paper, a physics-based model is developed for the uncompensated ISI in a passive time-reversal equalizer. The model makes use of a normal-mode expansion for the acoustic field. The matched-filtering integral is approximated and the intermediate result interpreted using the waveguide invariant. After combining across the array and sampling, formal statistical averages of the soft demodulation output are calculated. The results show how performance scales with bandwidth, with the number and position of array elements, and with the length of the finite impulse response matched filters. Good agreement is obtained between the predicted scaling and that observed in field experiments.

During SAX99 (for sediment acoustics experiment &$151; 1999) the sediment sound speed (125 Hz to 400 kHz) and attenuation (2.5 to 400 kHz) in sandy sediments were measured by a variety of techniques. The SAX99 site was 2 km from shore on the Florida Panhandle near Fort Walton Beach in water of 18–19 m depth. SAX04 was held in the fall of 2004 at a site close to the SAX99 site, about 1 km from shore in water of 17 m depth. The sediment sound speed and attenuation were again measured over a broad frequency range by multiple techniques, with even more attention paid to the low frequency band from 1–10 kHz. The results and corresponding uncertainties from SAX99 will be reviewed, and the consistency with Biot model predictions and alternative models (e.g., Buckingham's model) will be discussed. An overview will then be presented of the recently completed SAX04 measurement program on sediment sound speed and attenuation.

Small boat propeller noise was recorded on a single hydrophone in very shallow water for the purpose of estimating sediment sound speed. The experiment was conducted near shore in water depth between 2 and 10 m. The sediment consisted of uniform sand. The lone hydrophone was moored 2 m above the bottom at 6 m depth. A small boat traveling at constant speed was used as the sound source, and ran both parallel and perpendicular to shore. Thus, both the range independent waveguide case and wedge shaped waveguide case could be investigated. The source tracks were recorded by using a GPS recorder on the boat. Water depth in the entire area was measured, as was the sound speed profile at the receiver. The processed date sets resulted in interference patterns in range–frequency plots. Aided by numerical simulations, sediment sound speed can be estimated over the frequency range of 500–4500 Hz.

This paper describes recent results from an ongoing modeling and measurement effort investigating shallow grazing angle acoustic detection of targets buried in sand. The measurements were performed in a 13.7-m deep, 110-m long, 80-m wide test-pool with a 1.5-m layer of sand on the bottom. A silicone-oil-filled target sphere was buried under a rippled surface with contours formed by scraping the sand with a machined rake. Broad band (10 to 50 kHz) transducers were placed onto the shaft of a tilting motor, which in turn was attached to an elevated rail that enabled this assembly to be translated horizontally, permitting acquired data to be processed using synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) techniques. Acoustic backscatter data were acquired at subcritical grazing angles for various ripple wavelengths and heights. In addition, the backscattered signals from a calibrated free-field sphere and the transmitted signals received with a free-field hydrophone were recorded. For each bottom configuration, the seabed roughness over the buried target was measured to determine the ripple parameters and to estimate the small-scale roughness spectrum. This roughness information is used in scattering models to calculate the backscattered signal levels from the target and bottom. In previous work, measured signal-to-reverberation ratios were found to compare well with model predictions, demonstrating the accuracy of first-order perturbation theory (for the ripple heights used in those experiments) for frequencies up to 30 kHz. By taking advantage of the backscattered data collected using the free-field sphere and of the acquired transmitted data, more stringent comparisons of predicted buried target backscatter levels to measured levels are made here. Results of a second series of measurements using larger ripple heights to investigate the impact of higher-order scattering effects on buried target detection are presented.

As part of the sediment acoustics experiment 1999 (SAX99), backscattering from a sand sediment was measured in the 20- to 300-kHz range for incident grazing angles from 10° to 40°. Measured backscattering strengths are compared to three different scattering models: a fluid model that uses the mass density of the sediment in determining backscattering, a poroelastic model based on Biot theory and an "effective density" fluid model derived from Biot theory. These comparisons rely heavily on the extensive environmental characterization carried out during SAX99. This environmental characterization is most complete at spatial scales relevant to acoustic frequencies from 20 to 50 kHz. Model/data comparisons lead to the conclusions that rough surface scattering is the dominant scattering mechanism in the 20-50-kHz frequency range and that the Biot and effective density fluid models are more accurate than the fluid model in predicting the measured scattering strengths. For 50–150 kHz, rough surface scattering strengths predicted by the Biot and effective density fluid models agree well with the data for grazing angles below the critical angle of the sediment (about 30°) but above the critical angle the trends of the models and the data differ. At 300 kHz, data/model comparisons indicate that the dominant scattering mechanism may no longer be rough surface scattering.

As part of the environmental characterization to model acoustic bottom scattering during the high-frequency sediment acoustics experiment (SAX99), fine-scale sediment roughness of a medium sand was successfully measured within a 600 x 600-m area by two methods: stereo photography and a technique using a conductivity system. Areal coverage of the two methods, representing approximately 0.16 m² of the sea floor, was comparable, resulting in the depiction and quantification of half-meter wavelength sand ripples. Photogrammetric results were restricted to profiles digitized at 1-mm intervals; sediment conductivity results generated gridded micro-bathymetric measurements with 1- to 2-cm node spacing. Roughness power spectra give similar results in the low-spatial-frequency domains where the spectra estimated from both approaches overlap. However, spectra derived from higher resolution photogrammetric results appear to exhibit a multiple-power-law fit. Roughness measurements also indicate that spectrum changes as a function of time. Application of statistical confidence bounds on the power spectra indicates that roughness measurements separated by only 1-2 m may be spatially nonstationary.

During the sediment acoustics experiment in 1999 (SAX99), several researchers measured sound speed and attenuation. Together, the measurements span the frequency range of about 125 Hz-400 kHz. The data are unique both for the frequency range spanned at a common location, and for the extensive environmental characterization that was carried out as part of SAX99. Environmental measurements were sufficient to determine or bound the values of almost all the sediment and pore water physical property input parameters of the Biot poroelastic model for sediment. However, the measurement uncertainties for some of the parameters result in significant uncertainties for Biot-model predictions. Here, measured sound-speed and attenuation results are compared to the frequency dependence predicted by Biot theory and a simpler "effective density" fluid model derived from Biot theory. Model/data comparisons are shown where the uncertainty in Biot predictions due to the measurement uncertainties for values of each input parameter are quantified. A final set of parameter values, for use in other modeling applications e.g., in modeling backscattering (Williams et al., 2002) are given, that optimize the fit of the Biot and effective density fluid models to the sound-speed dispersion and attenuation measured during SAX99. The results indicate that the variation of sound speed with frequency is fairly well modeled by Biot theory but the variation of attenuation with frequency deviates from Biot theory predictions for homogeneous sediment as frequency increases. This deviation may be due to scattering from volume heterogeneity. Another possibility for this deviation is shearing at grain contacts hypothesized by Buckingham; comparisons are also made with this model.

As part of the effort to characterize the acoustic environment during the high frequency sediment acoustics experiment (SAX99), fine-scale variability of sediment density was measured by an in situ technique and by core analysis. The in situ measurement was accomplished by a newly developed instrument that measures sediment conductivity. The conductivity measurements were conducted on a three-dimensional (3-D) grid, hence providing a set of data suited for assessing sediment spatial variability. A 3-D sediment porosity matrix is obtained from the conductivity data through an empirical relationship (Archie's Law). From the porosity matrix, sediment bulk density is estimated from known average grain density. A number of cores were taken at the SAX99 site, and density variations were measured using laboratory techniques. The power spectra were estimated from both techniques and were found to be appropriately fit by a power-law. The exponents of the horizontal one-dimensional (1-D) power-law spectra have a depth-dependence and range from 1.72 to 2.41. The vertical 1-D spectra have the same form, but with an exponent of 2.2. It was found that most of the density variability is within the top 5 mm of the sediment, which suggests that sediment volume variability will not have major impact on acoustic scattering when the sound frequency is below 100 kHz. At higher frequencies, however, sediment volume variability is likely to play an important role in sound scattering.

In this paper, backscattering from 3D volume inhomogeneities in the seabed is modeled and the results compared with experimental data at 250–650 Hz. The experiment was part of the Acoustic Reverberation Special Research Program (ARSRP) and the data were obtained in a sediment pond on the western flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. A volume scattering model based on first-order perturbation theory is developed incorporating contributions from both sound speed and density fluctuations. With the propagators, i.e., the Green's functions, handled accurately through numerical wave number integration and random fluctuations generated effectively by a new scheme modified from the spectral method, the model is capable of simulating monostatic, backscattered fields in the frequency domain as well as in the time domain owing to 3D volumetric sediment inhomogeneities. The model compares favorably and consistently with the ARSRP backscattering data over the entire frequency band, with the fluctuations of sound speed and density in two irregular sediment layers, identified from the data analysis, described by a power-law type of power spectrum.

A high-frequency acoustic experiment was performed at a site 2 km from shore on the Florida Panhandle near Fort Walton Beach in water of 18–19 m depth. The goal of the experiment was, for high-frequency acoustic fields (mostly In the 10–300-kHz range), to quantify backscattering from the seafloor sediment, penetration into the sediment, and propagation within the sediment. In addition, spheres and other objects were used to gather data on acoustic detection of buried objects. The high-frequency acoustic interaction with the medium sand sediment was investigated at grazing angles both above and below the critical angle of about 30°. Detailed characterizations of the upper seafloor physical properties were made to aid in quantifying the acoustic interaction with the seafloor. Biological processes within the seabed and the water column were also investigated with the goal of understanding their impact on acoustic properties. This paper summarizes the topics that motivated the experiment, outlines the scope of the measurements done, and presents preliminary acoustics results.

A 1-km² area located 2 km off the Florida Panhandle (30°22.6'N; 86°38.7'W) was selected as the site to conduct high-frequency acoustic seafloor penetration, sediment propagation, and bottom scattering experiments. Side scan, multibeam, and normal incidence chirp acoustic surveys as well as subsequent video surveys, diver observations, and vibra coring, indicate a uniform distribution of surficial and subbottom seafloor characteristics within the area. The site, in 18–19 m of water, is characterized by 1–2-m-thick fine-to-medium clean sand and meets the logistic and scientific requirements specified for the acoustic experiments. This paper provides a preliminary summary of the meteorological, oceanographic, and seafloor conditions found during the experiments and describes the important physical and biological processes that control the spatial distribution and temporal changes in these characteristics.

As part of the SAX99 experiment, a buried hydrophone array was deployed together with a movable tower with attached sources covering the frequency range 11–50 kHz. This system was used to examine subcritical penetration into the sediment. For incident grazing angles below the critical angle, scattering dominates the penetrating field. Comparisons with simulations based on perturbation theory show that the penetration is predominately the result of diffraction by the low-amplitude ripple field prevalent at the SAX99 site. Simulations predict a cutoff effect as a function of frequency and grazing angle that is found in the data, and predict changes in penetration as a function of ripple field amplitude that are consistent with those observed.

Two new instruments were developed and deployed during SAX99 to measure surficial sediment variability at centimeter scales. Such data serve as input to acoustic models predicting sound scattering in the frequency range of 10–50 kHz. One instrument, IMP (In situ Measurement of Porosity) measures sediment conductivity at 1-cm resolution in the horizontal dimensions and at 3-mm resolution in the depth dimension. From this instrument the following information is derived: (1) 3-D porosity or density variation in the top 12 cm of sediments, and (2) 2-D bottom roughness and associated spectra. The second instrument, the Acoustic Imager (AI), is a 3-D sediment tomographic tool with 1-cm resolution operating at 170 kHz. Information derived from the AI includes (1) 3-D sediment sound speed variability, (2) 3-D variability of sediment attenuation coefficients, (3) the presence and distribution of discrete scatterers such as shell pieces, and (4) the temporal variability of the above parameters over 3 days. These results and their implications to the acoustic measurements taken during the SAX99 experiment will be discussed.

The main goals of the APL program in SAX99 were to measure and improve our ability to model acoustic propagation within, high-frequency backscattering from, and penetration into sand sediments. To prepare for these measurements, new equipment and experimental procedures were developed. For the penetration studies, simulations were used extensively to guide the experiment design in order to ensure that the measurements would be useful for addressing our goals. Illustrations will be given of how simulations were used to support the experiment design. The APL experimental equipment used in SAX99 will be described, and the experimental procedures will be presented. Finally, the resulting data set will be summarized.

The proper evaluation of sound propagation between sources/receivers and scatterers is important in characterizing bottom volume scattering. In this article, several sound propagation models used in bottom volume scattering studies are evaluated and their results compared to the exact solution obtained through a numerical wave number integration technique. It is found that Hines's approach [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 88, 324-334 (1990)] works well for the two isovelocity half-space case except when the grazing angle is close to the critical angle. The far-field approximation, given by Ivakin [Sov. Phys. Acoust. 32(6), 492-496 (1986)] and Mourad and Jackson [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 94, 344-358 (1993)], has a performance depending upon the sound speed structure in the sediment. For an isovelocity slow bottom, it agrees well with the exact solution. However, discrepancies arise for an isovelocity fast bottom or a bottom with a complex sound speed structure. In addition, the appropriateness of using the equivalent surface scattering strength as a function of grazing angle in volume scattering characterizations is studied. In conclusion, precautions need to be taken in modeling both the propagation effects and the scattering mechanisms associated with the bottom volume scattering process.

As part of the SAX99 experiment, a buried hydrophone array was deployed together with a movable tower with attached sources covering the frequency range 11–50 kHz. With the tower placed to provide incident grazing angles well above the critical angle, this system was used to obtain data from which sediment sound speed and absorption were determined. The sound-speed data exhibit significant dispersion, while the absorption data show an approximate linear frequency dependence. When these data are combined with data at other frequencies from the same site, the dispersion and absorption are found to be consistent with causality and with the Biot model.

During the SAX99 experiment, acoustic backscattering measurements were made at frequencies from 20 to 300 kHz as a function of grazing angle. The results from these acoustic measurements will be presented and compared with backscattering models that use the environmental measurements of other SAX99 researchers as input. In the 20–50-kHz range these comparisons indicate that surface roughness plays a dominant role in acoustic backscattering with a very distinctive reduction in backscattering at grazing angles above the critical angle of the sediment. Above 50 kHz this critical angle feature is less evident. Possible reasons for this change with frequency will be discussed. The backscattering models used here were originally developed for frequencies from 10 to 100 kHz. SAX99 data give some indication that further modeling is needed above 100 kHz.

Power spectra of density variability for sandy sediments offshore Panama City, Florida, are estimated and modeled using digital x-ray computed tomography images of sediment structure. Spectral analysis reveals that while shell pieces and mud mixtures are the main contributors to density variability at large scales, intrinsic density variability associated with sand grain contacts dominates at small scales. The power spectrum of sandy sediments is modeled by an analytic form that consists of two power-law components, one associated with the shell and mud contributions and the other with the intrinsic density variability of sand. The dominant term has a much higher power-law exponent than previously reported. Implications for the scattering of high-frequency sound in sandy sediments are discussed.