Abstract:
Traditionally, ocean acoustic signals have been
acquired using hydrophones, which measure the pressure field and are typically omnidirectional.
A vector sensor measures both the acoustic pressure and the three components of particle velocity.
Assembled into an array, a vector sensor array (VSA) improves spatial filtering capabilities when
compared with arrays of same length and same number of hydrophones. The objective of this work is to
show the advantage of the use of vector sensors in underwater acoustic
applications such as direction of arrival (DOA) estimation and geoacoustic inversion.
Beyond the improvments in DOA estimation, it will be shown the advantages of using a VSA in bottom parameters estimation.
Additionally, is testet the possibility of using high frequency signals (say 8-14 kHz band), acquired during the MakaiEx 2005,
in order to allow a small aperture array, reducing the cost of actual sub-bottom profilers
to allow a small aperture array, reducing the cost of actual sub-bottom profilers and providing
a compact and easy-to-deploy system.