Broadband Waveform Geoacoustic Inversions With Absolute Travel Time

• Published in: IEEE journal of oceanic engineering Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 174 - 188
• Main Authors: Lin, Ying-Tsong, Bonnel, Julien, Knobles, David P., Wilson, Preston S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.01.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Acoustic data; Acoustic noise; Acoustics; Broadband; Broadband communication; Chip-scale atomic clock; Clocks; Conditional probability; Geoacoustic inversion; geoacoustic inversions; Inversions; Maximum likelihood estimates; Maximum likelihood estimation; New England Mud Patch; Ocean floor; Probability distribution; Probability theory; Signal to noise ratio; Sonar equipment; Time synchronization; Travel time; Uncertainty; Waveforms
• ISSN: 0364-9059; 1558-1691
• DOI: 10.1109/JOE.2019.2919859

Numerical and experimental studies were conducted to investigate the advantage of utilizing absolute travel time information in Bayesian geoacoustic inversions of broadband acoustic data. It is shown that inversions using absolute travel time can yield smaller uncertainties compared to inversions using relative arrival time and maximum-likelihood estimates for clock time synchronization. Experimental data collected in the Seabed Characterization Experiment on the New England Mud Patch in the Middle Atlantic Bight were used for real data demonstration, and it is shown that inversions using relative arrival times have greater uncertainty in estimating source distance, which consequently affects the overall posterior probability distribution of inverted parameters. Numerical study enables investigation of performance dependence on the signal-to-noise ratio, and it is found that absolute travel time information may have more profound advantages when the signal-to-noise ratio is low.