S.M. Jesus sjesus@ualg.pt
UCEH - Universidade do Algarve
PT-8000 Faro, Portugal
A.Caiti caiti@dsea.unipi.it
DSEA - Universita di Pisa
Pisa, Italia.
Comments: download pdf file .
Ref.: in 2nd MAST Days and EUROMAR Market Conference
(ISBN 92-827-5012-4),
p.1147-1160, Sorrento, Italy, 1995.
Abstract: The quantitative measurement or estimation of the
geophysical
properties of the seafloor upper sedimentary strata is a requirement in
several
marine applications, from geotechnical engineering to underwater
acoustics.
Traditional methods employ in-situ instrumentation (cone penetrometers,
coring,
etc.) and are able to probe the seafloor at selected points. This
project
aims at exploring the feasibility of seafloor model identification by
acoustic
means. In particular, the project has considered the use of an acoustic
system,
in which a ship tows both an acoustic source and an horizontal array of
receivers.
From the acoustic field measured at the receiving array, the seafloor
parameters
are estimated by suitable inversion algorithms. The project focused in
particular
on the use of such a system in shallow waters, and considered the
advantages
and limitations of the method from the point of view of system
requirementes,
signal processing and inversion strategies. Sensitivity studies show
that
it is indeed possible to recover the seafloor parameters in shallow
water
with a moderate aperture towed array, and experimental results are
shown
to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept. Possible improvements
and
further lines of research are also discussed.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: this work was partially supported by the EU project MAS2-CT920022.