The application to real data of a technique for measuring the plane-wave reflection coefficient of the ocean bottom

A technique has been described for the measurement of the plane-wave reflection coefficient of a horizontally stratified ocean bottom [G. V. Frisk, A. V. Oppenheim, and D. R. Martinez, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 68, 602–612 (1980)]. It is based on the exact Hankel transform relationship between the reflection coefficient and the bottom reflected field due to a point source, and was shown to yield excellent results with synthetically generated data for simple bottom examples. We apply the method to real 220-Hz data obtained using a near-bottom experimental geometry. The results of the Hankel transform inversion are compared with those obtained using an iteration of forward models technique. [Work supported by ONR, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and NORDA.]