Acoustic Clutter and Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS) in Continental Shelf Environments

Acoustic clutter is the primary problem encountered by active sonar systems operating in Continental Shelf environments. Clutter is defined as any return from the environment that stands prominently above the diffuse and temporally decaying reverberation background and so can be confused with or camouflage returns from an intended target such as an underwater vehicle. Many environmental factors may contribute to acoustic clutter and adversely affect the performance of tactical Navy sonar by introducing false alarms in the system. In order to develop adaptive algorithms or technology to mitigate acoustic clutter, it is critical to identify, understand, and be able to accurately model the leading order physical mechanisms which cause clutter in existing sonar systems. The long-term goal of this program is to determine and understand the physical mechanisms that cause acoustic clutter in continental shelf environments and to use this knowledge to develop predictive tools to enhance the detection, localization and classification of underwater targets.